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BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thai authorities on Tuesday rushed to protect parts of Bangkok from floodwaters that have already inundated 70,000 homes and killed six people in the country’s northern and central provinces. Tropical storm Dianmu has caused flooding in 30 provinces, with the kingdom’s central region the worst hit, the Thai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said. The level of the Chao Phraya River — which snakes through Bangkok after winding almost 400 kilometres […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand is to cut the quarantine for vaccinated travellers to seven days starting in October, officials said Monday, as it seeks to revive its battered tourism industry. Pre-pandemic Thailand attracted nearly 40 million visitors a year, but Covid-related travel restrictions have hammered the sector, contributing to the economy’s worst performance in more than 20 years. The kingdom is pushing to reopen despite still being in the grips of a deadly third […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar is facing the alarming prospect of an escalating civil war as an uprising against the military junta widens, the UN’s human rights chief warned on Thursday. Michelle Bachelet told the United Nations Human Rights Council that time was running out for other countries to step up efforts to restore democracy and prevent a broader conflict. Myanmar has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was ousted by the […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Thousands have fled a town in west Myanmar after days of fighting between anti-junta dissidents and the military, during which soldiers bombed civilian homes, residents and media said Wednesday. Myanmar has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi’s government was ousted by the military in February, sparking a nationwide uprising that the junta has tried to crush. Attacks on junta troops have increased after lawmakers ousted by the generals called […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — The Asian Development Bank warned of “lasting scars” from the coronavirus pandemic as it cut its 2021 growth forecast for developing Asia on slow vaccination rates, surging infections and crippling lockdowns. A shortage of doses, which has hampered efforts to inoculate the vast region stretching from the Cook Islands in the Pacific to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, could worsen as evidence of waning vaccine protection increases demand for booster shots, the […]
by Cecil MORELLA Agence France Presse MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Classrooms in the Philippines were silent Monday as millions of school children hunkered down at home for a second year of remote lessons that experts fear will worsen an educational “crisis”. While nearly every country in the world has partially or fully reopened schools to in-person classes, the Philippines has kept them closed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the UN says. President […]
China handed over to Cambodia a $150 million stadium in Phnom Penh, with officials saying Sunday it is the result of Beijing’s biggest ever infrastructure grant to the country. The 60,000-capacity venue is the latest project under China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative, a plan to fund infrastructure projects and increase its sway overseas. The presentation of the arena, intended as the main venue when Cambodia hosts the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 2023, was […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — For families struggling to survive on $150 a month in Bangkok’s biggest slum, coronavirus swab tests are a luxury that few can afford. The Khlong Toei slum, where an estimated 100,000 people live packed into tiny, overcrowded dwellings, has been a major concern as Thailand battles its third wave of the pandemic. Now the Bangkok Community Help Foundation, a charity, has launched a mass testing drive to try to identify cases […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A fire tore through an Indonesian prison on Java island on Wednesday, killing 41 people and injuring dozens of others, an official said. The blaze at the Tangerang Penitentiary, just outside the capital Jakarta, broke out in the early hours when most inmates were asleep. Rescue teams were able to put out the fire, which was mostly contained in one block that housed prisoners jailed over drug charges, at around 3:00 […]
HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — A Vietnamese man has been sentenced to five years in jail for spreading Covid-19 after he breached home quarantine rules. Le Van Tri was convicted of “spreading dangerous infectious diseases to other people” after he travelled to his home province Ca Mau from coronavirus hotspot Ho Chi Minh City in July, according to a report on the website of the provincial People’s Court. The 28-year old was accused of breaching a […]
US Vice President Kamala Harris’ flight from Singapore to Vietnam was delayed by three hours Tuesday after an “anomalous health incident” took place in Hanoi, the US embassy said. Harris was due in Vietnam after a two-day stop in Singapore as part of a regional trip. “The Vice President’s travelling delegation was delayed from departing Singapore because the Vice President’s office was made aware of a report of a recent possible anomalous health incident in […]
US Vice President Kamala Harris accused Beijing on Tuesday of coercion and intimidation in the hotly disputed South China Sea, as she sought to rally allies against an increasingly assertive China. “Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she said in a speech in Singapore, laying out her administration’s foreign policy goals for Asia. “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and […]
