HANOI: Vietnam’s economic growth is expected to slow 2 per cent to 3 per cent this year after expanding 7.02 per cent in 2019 due to the wider impact of the coronavirus pandemic and natural disasters, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on Tuesday (Oct 20). “The coronavirus pandemic has left a huge impact on
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BADUNG, Indonesia: Dismayed by the plastic waste strewn over their home island of Bali, sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen have channelled Ted Talks and international conferences in raising global awareness through a youth-led movement to try to eliminate the scourge. It was not “rocket science,” said Melati, 19, of the plastic waste problem that prompted
North Koreans awaiting criminal trial routinely endure beatings and starvation in overcrowded, unsanitary cells with no access to legal representation, according to a new report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch. In interviews with HRW, eight former North Korean officials and 22 former detainees who fled the country since leader Kim Jong Un came
Takna Jigme Sangpo, famous as Tibet’s longest-serving political prisoner, has died in Switzerland at the age of 91 after spending 37 years in Chinese prisons and 18 years in exile, where he spoke out against Chinese human rights abuses in Tibet. Sangpo passed away at around 8:00 at the Senior Care Facility in Turbental, Switzerland,
SINGAPORE: The maximum group size for walking, cycling and kayaking tours will be increased from 10 to 20 from Nov 1, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said on Monday (Oct 19). This number excludes the tour guide. Advertisement Advertisement Tour participants must still remain in sub-groups of five – the prevailing social gathering group limit,
DUBLIN: A number of European countries took urgent new measures on Monday (Oct 19) to combat a second wave of coronavirus infections, as the World Health Organization blamed the surge in worldwide cases – now more than 40 million – on countries’ failure to quarantine infected people properly. Ireland and Wales became the first countries on
Floods, landslides, and other natural disasters triggered by downpours in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have left scores dead, with paddy fields and rice stocks destroyed, and thousands displaced from their homes in a region hard hit by COVID-19 and its economic fallout, officials and state media said Monday. In Vietnam, at least 90 are dead
Japan has agreed in principle to supply Vietnam with military equipment, in a significant deepening of security cooperation between a key U.S. ally and a South China Sea claimant as their leaders met Monday. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc welcomed his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga, who was making his first overseas trip since taking
A senior member of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was brutally assaulted in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh Monday by two unidentified men on a motorbike, leaving him unconscious and in the hospital, according to his wife. Din Varin, secretary general of the CNRP’s executive committee and an elected councilor for Phnom Penh’s
BANGKOK: Hands point above head = need umbrella; Hands held over head = need helmet; Hands crossed over chest = enough supplies here. Thai protesters are learning a whole new language, developed within days to coordinate among crowds of thousands of people at demonstrations that have swollen in defiance of a government ban and despite
Authorities in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have detained an ethnic Uyghur who is a citizen of Afghanistan, according to members of his family who say they have called on Kabul’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist in advocating for his case. Abdughopur Abdureshid was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1988, but his
The democratic island of Taiwan said on Monday it had lodged a protest with Fiji after it emerged that one of its diplomats was taken to hospital following an assault by Chinese officials who gatecrashed an event in Suva earlier this month. “The incident was very regrettable and we condemn China for disrupting our event,
SINGAPORE: A student-run group from the National University of Singapore (NUS) on Monday (Oct 19) called on the university to show “transparency and accountability” following the dismissal of a professor at Tembusu College for inappropriate behaviour. Dr Jeremy Fernando was sacked by the university following an internal investigation after it received two complaints alleging that
SINGAPORE: The air travel bubble announced by Hong Kong and Singapore on Oct 15 marks the first significant positive development in several months for both aviation hubs, Singapore Airlines (SIA) as well as Cathay Pacific. Both the Changi Airport and Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) are currently at about 1.5 per cent of normal passenger
SINGAPORE: Four new COVID-19 cases were reported in Singapore on Monday (Oct 19), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said. All four infections were imported cases who were placed on stay-home notice upon their arrival in Singapore, and tested during this period said MOH. No locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported. Advertisement Advertisement A 40-year-old Singaporean woman and a
A former university student who fled Hong Kong after riot police surrounded their university campus in November 2019 has been granted political asylum in Germany, a rights group said on Monday. The 22-year-old woman, a former student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), was granted refugee status for three years on Oct. 14
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Minister of Environment and Water on Monday (Oct 19) said he expected water supply to be restored within 24 hours in Selangor, as 5 million consumers were hit by water cuts, the second major disruption within a week. This comes after Air Selangor announced on Saturday that water supply to 686 areas was affected by a burst pipe
MANILA: On Sep 13, Joseph Scott Pemberton left the Philippines a free man, having served less than six years of a 10-year prison term for homicide. In 2014, he killed Jennifer Laude, a transgender woman he met in a nightclub, while Pemberton was in the Philippines for a joint military exercise. Pemberton’s release came after President Rodrigo
Dozens of academics and experts on China have hit out at a New Zealand university for its investigation of Anne-Marie Brady, a university professor who publicized links between the country’s universities and Chinese state interests. The University of Canterbury has said it is investigating complaints against Brady from universities and individuals linked to a report
NEW DELHI: India announced on Monday (Oct 19) that Australia will join annual naval exercises scheduled with the United States and Japan, in a move that could raise concerns in China, which has previously criticised any joint drills as destabilising. India is hosting the Malabar drills in the Bay of Bengal scheduled for later next month.
SINGAPORE: A 27-year-old foreign worker died after he was electrocuted in a workplace accident on Thursday (Oct 15). The worker was dismantling an electrical distribution board at 170 Still Road, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Monday in response to queries from CNA. Advertisement Advertisement The Police National Service Department is located at that
YANGON: After spending years in confinement, few understand uncertainty, isolation and family separation better than Myanmar’s former political prisoners. As the coronavirus spreads in Myanmar, sending thousands of people into quarantine facilities, the detainees under military rule are using their experiences to help promote mental health of those now in isolation, amid concern about infection,
PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia recorded more than 800 COVID-19 cases for a third day, with 865 new infections reported on Monday (Oct 19) taking the cumulative total to 21,363, said health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. Dr Noor Hisham added that there were 7,456 active cases with infectivity potential. Advertisement Advertisement Three new deaths, all in Sabah,
SINGAPORE: Hearse operators will have to follow new guidelines for the transfer of the deceased, which are aimed at improving funeral service standards in Singapore, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Monday (Oct 19). The regulations, which are developed in partnership with the Association of Funeral Directors Singapore (AFD), mainly cover the “best practices” for transfer of the
JAKARTA: The president of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Joko Widodo, called on Monday (Oct 19) for Indonesia not to rush the rollout of vaccines, citing concerns over public awareness about whether they were halal. With more than 365,000 coronavirus cases and 12,000 deaths, Indonesia has struggled to get its outbreak under control and the
SINGAPORE: A Chinese couple on trial for obstructing COVID-19 contact tracing efforts will not be allowed to return to China before the trial resumes in January, after a High court review of a district judge’s decision granting them permission to leave Singapore. Justice Vincent Hoong on Monday (Oct 19) agreed with the prosecution’s application to overturn the decision
MUMBAI: India’s tally of coronavirus infections stood at 7.55 million on Monday (Oct 19), having risen by 55,722 cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed. The world’s second-most populous country also has the second-highest number of infections in the world, after the United States, which has around 8.1 million. Advertisement Advertisement However,
HANOI: Japan and Vietnam agreed on Monday (Oct 19) to strengthen security and economic ties, including an agreement in principle for Japan to export military gear and technology to the Southeast Asian nation, amid concerns about China’s regional assertiveness. “It is a big step in the field of security for both countries that we reached
SINGAPORE: Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Singapore’s economy, the electronics sector has continued to grow, with more than 130 companies in the industry offering more than 2,800 jobs, training and traineeship opportunities since April. Of these, about 1,880 are for jobs, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) latest jobs situation report released on Monday (Oct 19).
HONG KONG: Nearly 15 years ago, Grace Ma decided to name her bar Club 71, in commemoration of a Jul 1, 2003, rally where hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers protested a proposed national security law for the city. “I took the name Club 71, because somehow it is more hopeful, with half a million Hong Kong people
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