Asia

Thai hospitals short of beds as Covid cases soar: ministry

  BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand’s health ministry sounded the alarm over Bangkok’s dire lack of hospital beds and isolation facilities on Thursday as Covid-19 cases and deaths soared to a new record. The Southeast Asian country is struggling to contain its latest outbreak fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, with infections and deaths skyrocketing and the healthcare system stretched thin. Despite the hardest-hit provinces being placed under severe restrictions and a nighttime curfew, […]

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JUST IN: Floods kill 40 in north Afghanistan, 150 missing: officials

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) — At least 40 people have been killed with 150 more missing in northern Afghanistan after flash floods ravaged an area northeast of the capital Kabul, officials said on Thursday. A rescue operation was underway to find the missing people after torrential rains overwhelmed Kamdesh district in Nuristan province — about 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Kabul. © Agence France-Presse

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Olympic organizers defend coronavirus measures as cases rise

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo Olympics organisers dismissed any link to rising coronavirus cases in Japan on Thursday after reporting 24 infections among Games participants, the highest yet. At least 193 athletes, media and Olympic employees and contractors have now tested positive for the virus, according to Tokyo 2020 figures that do not include some cases at airports and in training camps. On Wednesday, Japan reported 9,583 cases nationwide, the first time the figure […]

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Indonesia’s Sinabung volcano erupts

  MEDAN, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung erupted on Wednesday, spewing a massive column of smoke and ash into the sky. The eruption of the volcano in North Sumatra province lasted about 12 minutes, a local geological agency said. “The volcanic material reached 4,500 metres into the air and lasted for quite a long time,” the head of the agency’s Sinabung monitoring post, Armen Putra, told AFP. An image shared by the agency showed […]

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Record virus cases in Tokyo as more regions weigh emergency

  TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Daily virus cases in Tokyo topped 3,000 for the first time on Wednesday, as several neighbouring regions weighed emergency restrictions to tackle a surge in infections. Tokyo, which is already under a virus state of emergency as it hosts the Olympics, reported 3,117 cases, and Governor Yuriko Koike called on people to avoid “unnecessary, non-urgent outings.” Japan’s vaccination programme started slowly, and only just over 25 percent of the population […]

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18 workers killed in India as truck rams into bus

LUCKNOW, India (AFP) — Eighteen migrant laborers sleeping on a highway in northern India after their bus broke down died when a truck rammed into the vehicle, police said Wednesday. At least 19 others were injured in the accident in Uttar Pradesh state, a senior police officer told reporters. Most of the passengers were returning home to the eastern state of Bihar after working in the states of Punjab or Haryana. The passengers got off […]

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Tropical storm makes landfall in northern Japan

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A tropical storm hit northern Japan on Wednesday but there were no immediate reports of damage and Olympic football matches in the region were due to go ahead. Local authorities issued non-mandatory evacuation orders and set up emergency shelters as Tropical Storm Nepartak made landfall in northern Japan’s Miyagi region shortly before 6:00 am (2100 GMT Tuesday). The storm is passing south of Morioka city in Iwate prefecture, bringing “strong” but […]

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Hong Kong court convicts man in first national security trial

A Hong Kong court convicted a former waiter of terrorism and inciting secession on Tuesday in the first trial conducted under a national security law that was imposed by China to stamp out dissent. The watershed ruling lays down a new marker in the city’s changing legal landscape and confirms certain slogans are now outlawed in the international finance hub. Tong Ying-kit, 24, was charged with terrorism for driving a motorbike into three police officers […]

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Osaka says painful home Olympic defeat ‘sucks’

by Martyn WOOD Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka conceded the pressure of trying to win an Olympic gold at home was a “bit much” after a 6-1, 6-4 defeat to Marketa Vondrousova ended her title dreams on Tuesday. Osaka, who lit the Olympic cauldron and was one of the faces of the Games, struggled in an error-strewn display that blew the draw wide open after the earlier exits of world number one Ashleigh Barty and […]

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Indonesia reports record 2,069 virus deaths in 24 hours

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia reported a record 2,069 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours Tuesday as the Southeast Asian nation faces its deadliest Covid-19 surge since the pandemic began. Tuesday’s grim tally was nearly 600 deaths higher than the previous day and topped last week’s daily record 1,566 deaths, the health ministry said. New infections also shot up to just over 45,000, from about 28,000 on Monday. The eye-watering data comes after Indonesia this week […]

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Death toll from Henan floods rises to 71 as China braces for more rain

BEIJING, China (AFP) — The death toll from floods in central China’s Henan province rose to 71 on Tuesday as a tribute at a subway where 14 people died was sealed off in a sign of sensitivity to public criticism of the government’s handling of the disaster. Torrential downpours dumped a year’s rain in just three days last week on the hardest-hit city of Zhengzhou, flooding subway cars and trapping more than 500 commuters during […]

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