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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia imposed a partial lockdown Saturday in the capital Jakarta, across the main island of Java and on Bali as the Southeast Asian nation grappled with an unprecedented wave of coronavirus infections. Mosques, restaurants and shopping malls were shuttered in virus hotspots around the Muslim-majority country, which recorded more than 25,000 new cases and 539 deaths on Friday, both new daily records. Indonesia’s daily caseload has more than quadrupled in […]
by Natsuko FUKUE Agence France Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A huge landslide swept away homes and left 19 people missing at a popular resort town in central Japan on Saturday after days of heavy rain, local officials said. Television footage showed a torrent of mud obliterating some buildings and burying others in Atami, southwest of Tokyo, with people running away as it crashed over a hillside road. “I heard a horrible sound and […]
by Jalees ANDRABI Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — Tens of millions of people in India were suffering Friday under a severe heatwave that has pushed the temperature to a nine-year high in Delhi as monsoon rains run behind schedule. Heatwaves have killed over 6,500 people in the world’s second-most populous nation since 2010, and scientists say climate change is making them harsher and more frequent. Daytime temperatures were above 40 degrees […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar authorities imposed stay-at-home-measures on the country’s second city Friday as coronavirus cases in the coup-wracked country surge, with many health workers striking to protest against the junta. Inhabitants of Mandalay, as well as two townships in the southern Bago region woke up to new restrictions banning more than one person leaving home for non-medical reasons. There was no timeframe given for the new rules, announced by the health and […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India became the third country to pass 400,000 Covid-19 deaths, official data showed Friday, as the country’s vast vaccination drive slows. Total deaths are 400,312, according to the health ministry — behind only the United States and Brazil — with total cases almost 30.5 million. Many experts suspect India’s true death toll is more than a million, after a devastating spike in cases in April and May that overwhelmed […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia will impose “emergency” coronavirus restrictions this week to battle an alarming surge in infections, President Joko Widodo said Thursday, as the country scrambles to avoid a collapse of its overwhelmed healthcare system. Widodo said the new restrictions, starting Friday, would last more than two weeks in the capital Jakarta and across hard-hit Java, as well as on the holiday island Bali, after infections surged to record levels. New daily […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China is on an “irreversible historical course”, President Xi Jinping told a huge gathering in Beijing Thursday, as the country held 100th anniversary celebrations for his ruling Chinese Communist Party. The era of China “being slaughtered and bullied is gone forever,” Xi said at a podium in Tiananmen Square, adding the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation entering an irreversible historical course.” © Agence France-Presse
PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand prepared Wednesday to reopen the holiday hotspot of Phuket to tourists quarantine-free, even as the country registered its highest single-day death toll from Covid-19. High hopes have been pinned on the so-called “Phuket sandbox” — a model that will allow vaccinated travellers to visit without a quarantine period in an effort to revive Thailand’s battered tourism industry. But the lead-up to its July 1 launch has been plagued with uncertainty […]
by Claire LEE SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un replaced several senior officials after a “grave incident” in the country’s efforts to defend itself against the coronavirus pandemic, state media reported Wednesday. Pyongyang closed its borders in January last year to defend itself against the pandemic that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world. It has not publicly confirmed any cases of the disease […]
by Bhuvan BAGGA NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India authorized the emergency use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday as it seeks to ramp up inoculations in the wake of a record-breaking surge in infections and deaths. The vast nation of 1.3 billion people was hit by a massive spike in coronavirus cases in April and May that pushed the healthcare system to breaking point. Moderna’s shot is the fourth to be approved by New […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong is to ban all incoming flights from the United Kingdom from July 1 to curb the more infectious Delta strain of the coronavirus, the financial hub’s government said in a statement Monday. “All passenger flights from the UK will be prohibited from landing in Hong Kong,” the statement said. The UK would now be designated in the “extremely high-risk” category of countries, it added, the most severe rating […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Work-from-home restrictions were reimposed in Moscow on Monday as Russia tried to contain a deadly coronavirus wave fuelled by the Delta variant, while several Asian nations also tightened curbs to contain growing outbreaks. While many wealthy countries have brought down infections through rapid vaccinations, outbreaks are still raging from Bangladesh and Indonesia to South America — many fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant that was first detected in India. […]
