HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Macau has announced a two-week ban on any inbound passenger flights from outside of China after three coronavirus cases were found in passengers arriving from overseas. The move came the same day Hong Kong banned flights from eight nations and ramped up social distancing measures, leaving the two neighbouring Chinese territories even more cut off from the rest of the world. Like mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau have […]
Asia
More than 1,000 wounded in Kazakhstan unrest: ministry
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — More than 1,000 people have been wounded in days of mounting unrest in Kazakhstan, the health ministry said Thursday. “More than 1,000 people were wounded following riots in different regions of Kazakhstan, nearly 400 among them were hospitalised and 62 people are in intensive care,” deputy health minister Azhar Guiniyat said on Khabar-24 television, according to Russian news agencies Interfax and TASS. © Agence France-Presse
China punishes officials after woman miscarries outside lockdown hospital
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese authorities said Thursday they have punished officials after footage went viral of an eight-month pregnant woman miscarrying in the locked-down city of Xi’an when a hospital refused her entry without a Covid test. The historic city of 13 million has been under strict home confinement for two weeks as Beijing sticks to its “zero-Covid” strategy to stamp out all virus cases. The distressing incident was detailed in a social media […]
Japan seeks restrictions on US troops after virus surge
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi urged his US counterpart Thursday to consider restricting American troop movement in the country after a surge in Covid cases on bases and surrounding communities. The request to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken comes as virus cases surge in Okinawa, which hosts most of the US forces in Japan and is now seeing a rise in community infections. The region’s governor has blamed the rise […]
North Korea says it tested hypersonic missile
by Qasim Nauman SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea has successfully tested a hypersonic missile, state media reported Thursday, in the first major weapons test by the nuclear-armed nation this year. This was the second reported North Korean test of a hypersonic gliding missile to date — following one in September last year — as Pyongyang looks to add the sophisticated weapon to its arsenal despite international sanctions and condemnation. Hypersonic missiles move far […]
Hong Kong ramps up virus controls, bans flights from eight countries including the PHL
2-week ban on flights from 8 countries to take effect starting Saturday midnight Hong Kong announced strict new anti-coronavirus controls on Wednesday, banning flights from eight nations, shuttering bars and gyms and cancelling evening restaurant dining after the Omicron variant was detected within the city. The restrictions are the latest economic blow to an international business hub pursuing a zero-Covid strategy that has kept cases low but left residents cut off from the rest […]
Myanmar has ‘ingredients for civil war’: ASEAN chair
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Myanmar has “all the ingredients for civil war”, Cambodia, chair of Southeast Asia’s regional bloc, has warned ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Hun Sen to the crisis-wracked country. Myanmar has been in chaos since a coup last year, with more than 1,400 people killed in a crackdown on dissent by security forces, according to a local monitoring group. Hun Sen, whose country this year holds the rotating chairmanship of […]
China to test 12 million in Zhengzhou as Xi’an outbreak eases
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The city of Zhengzhou ordered its 12 million residents to take Covid-19 tests Wednesday after a handful of cases were detected, as China fights to stamp out virus clusters ahead of the Winter Olympics. Everyone in Zhengzhou, which has been placed under a partial lockdown, must be tested to “thoroughly uncover infections hidden among the public”, the city’s government said in a statement Wednesday. Zhengzhou has detected 11 cases in recent […]
China says Xi’an outbreak controlled but other cities face restrictions
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Covid cases in the locked-down Chinese city of Xi’an fell to their lowest in weeks on Wednesday, as officials said an outbreak there had been largely “brought under control” after two weeks of a stay-at-home order. But other urban hubs where clusters have been detected face restrictions including a new partial lockdown in the city of Zhengzhou. China has stuck to a rigid approach of stamping out Covid cases when they […]
North Korea fires unidentified projectile into sea
by Sunghee Hwang North Korea has fired a projectile into the sea, the South’s military and the Japanese coast guard said Wednesday, in what would be the first such launch by Pyongyang this year. In the decade since Kim Jong Un took power, North Korea has seen rapid progress in its military technology at the cost of international sanctions. Despite severe economic difficulties during the coronavirus pandemic, Kim said last week the country would continue […]
Eight killed in southern Iran floods: state media
TEHRAN, Iran (AFP) — At least eight people have been killed in flash flooding in Iran’s south due to heavy rains expected to last until later this week, state media reported on Tuesday. “Following the floods and rains of the past few days in the southern regions of the country, we have seen an increase in casualties and deaths,” spokesman for the national rescue service Mojtaba Khaledi said, quoted by state news agency IRNA. “So […]
Delhi imposes weekend curfew as Covid cases surge
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s capital New Delhi will lock down over the weekend as authorities grapple with a fresh surge in coronavirus cases, partly fuelled by the fast-spreading Omicron variant. The country was battered by a devastating Covid outbreak last year that overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums, but daily case numbers had since then stayed reasonably low until last week. Delhi’s new restrictions came the same day the sprawling megacity’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, […]





