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MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Tuesday recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll yet, following an increase in cases linked to the Delta variant and a lacklustre vaccination drive. A government tally reported 852 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a record in Russia since the start of the pandemic. The new figure brings the country’s total deaths from Covid-19 to 205,531 — the highest in Europe. Authorities have been accused of downplaying […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A coronavirus state of emergency targeting nightlife in Tokyo and other Japanese regions will end this week, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday, as cases nosedive nationwide. The emergency measures, which largely limit alcohol sales, restaurant opening hours and crowd sizes at large events, have been in place for much of the year, including during the Olympics. They are due to expire at the end of September, and Suga said there […]
ZHUHAI, China (AFP) — China on Tuesday showed off its increasingly sophisticated air power including surveillance drones and jets able to jam hostile electronic equipment, with an eye on disputed territories from Taiwan to the South China Sea and rivalry with the United States. The country’s biggest airshow, in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai, comes as Beijing pushes to meet a 2035 deadline to retool its military for modern warfare. China still lags the […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Nuclear-armed North Korea fired an ‘unidentified projectile’ into the sea off its east coast, the South’s military said Tuesday. No further details were immediately available from the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The launch comes just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister Kim Yo Jong, a key adviser to her brother, dangled the prospect of an inter-Korean summit. But she insisted that “impartiality” and mutual respect […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that relations between Beijing and Taipei were “grim” on Sunday, urging the island’s main opposition party to help seek “unification of the country.” China views self-ruled democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and vows to retake it one day, by force if necessary. Xi has become the most bellicose leader since Mao Zedong, describing the seizure of the island as “inevitable.” In a congratulatory […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India will export eight million coronavirus vaccine jabs by the end of October after ending its ban on sending doses abroad, a top foreign ministry official said Saturday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to resume exports at a meeting of leaders from the so-called Quad in Washington as India, Japan, Australia, and the US try to counter growing Chinese influence across the Asia-Pacific region. Foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla […]
by Paavan MATHEMA KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) — Nepal has restarted visas on arrival for vaccinated tourists as South Asian nations attempt to revive tourism businesses devastated after 18 months of the pandemic. A near travel shutdown has been in place in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for more than a year as successive waves of coronavirus took a deadly toll. Nepal reopened to tourists and scrapped quarantine requirements for vaccinated foreigners on Thursday […]
SEOUL, South (AFP) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday said it was “admirable” of the South to propose a formal end to the Korean War but demanded Seoul first drop its “hostile policies” towards Pyongyang. Kim Yo Jong’s remarks, carried by Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency, were in response to South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s recent calls for declaring an official end to the 1950-53 conflict that ended […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) — A high-profile shaman who tried to end Sri Lanka’s Covid-19 outbreak with “blessed” water has died of the virus, his family said Thursday. Eliyantha White, 48, who treated sports stars and top politicians including the country’s prime minister, claimed in November he could end the pandemic in Sri Lanka and neighbouring India by pouring pots of his “blessed” water into rivers. Health minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi endorsed the water treatment, but […]
by Sebastian Smith WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States is shipping another 2.5 million Covid vaccine doses to hard-hit Bangladesh, a White House official told AFP on Thursday, after the Biden administration announced a ramping up of global donations. The latest shipment — 2,508,480 Pfizer doses — brings the total of US shots to the country above nine million. Packing was underway and first deliveries, made through the World Health Organization’s Covax program, […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — China on Thursday voiced opposition to Taiwan joining a major trans-Pacific trade deal as it flew 24 planes including two nuclear-capable bombers into the self-ruled island’s air defence zone, the biggest incursion in weeks, Taiwanese officials said. Last week Beijing submitted its own application to become a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Taiwan has lobbied for years to join and announced on Thursday that it […]
by Hashem Osseiran BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The phones at Lebanon’s only suicide hotline hardly ever stop ringing as people grow more and more desperate in the face of a financial downturn that has spurred a mental health crisis. In one call, a father says he is thinking of taking his own life because he is unable to feed his children, and in another, a man recently made homeless says he has lost all hope. […]
