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SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — A prominent Singapore minister stepped aside on Thursday as the successor to the premier, in a shock move that upended the tightly-controlled country’s carefully planned power transfer. Finance minister Heng Swee Keat was in 2018 named to a key post in the ruling party that put him in pole position to take over when Singapore’s founding family hands over the premiership. He was expected to replace Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China accused the United States of “politicizing sports” on Wednesday, after Washington said it would discuss calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics with its allies after growing pressure to shun the Winter Games on human rights grounds. Republican politicians in the US have led calls for a boycott of the Olympics, in part over what rights monitors say is the mass incarceration and indoctrination of more than a million Uyghurs and […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — More than one million households and businesses in Taiwan’s heavily industrialized central regions were put on water rationing Tuesday, as the island battles its worst drought in 56 years. The shortage is expected to particularly impact the water-intensive microchip manufacturing sector during a global shortage of semiconductors that power everything from cars to iPhones and computers. The state water company is now cutting supplies in Taichung, Miaoli and northern Changhua county […]
by Ammu KANNAMPILLY MUMBAI, India (AFP) — More than 700 million people across India were facing coronavirus vaccine shortages Thursday, local media reported, as infection numbers hit yet another daily record. Case numbers had eased in India but a second wave of the virus has since returned with a vengeance, with more than 126,000 new infections recorded in the past 24 hours, a new record. Several regions have tightened curbs on activity while Maharashtra, the […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan blasted China’s fighter jet incursions as “self-defeating” on Wednesday as 15 more of Beijing’s planes crossed into the island’s air defence zone. Taipei’s defence ministry said it scrambled aircraft to broadcast warning messages to the latest incursion, which included 12 Chinese fighters. China has ramped up the use of such drills to record levels over the past year as a way to pile pressure on self-ruled Taiwan which it regards […]
Armed attack on PHL to “trigger our obligation” to defend PHL under US-PHL Mutual Defense Treaty, says US State Dep’t spokesman WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States on Wednesday warned China against what the Philippines and Taiwan see as increasingly aggressive moves, reminding Beijing of Washington’s obligations to its partners. “An armed attack against the Philippines’ armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including in the South China Sea, will […]
by Jerome TAYLOR Agence France Presse He leads one of the world’s smallest nations, but Surangel Whipps says Palau will not be bullied by anyone into deciding its future — least of all by China. Whipps, 52, became Palau’s president after last year defeating an opponent who favoured closer ties with Beijing. The Pacific nation of around 21,000 people is one of just 15 countries that still recognise Taiwan over China, something Whipps is […]
by Handrianus Emanuel / with Maria Vieira in Dili LEMBATA, Indonesia (AFP) — Tropical cyclone Seroja pounded Indonesia and East Timor Monday after torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that have killed at least 113 people and left dozens more missing. Packing heavy winds and rain, the storm heaped more misery on the Southeast Asian nations after Sunday’s disaster turned small communities into wastelands of mud, uprooted trees and forced thousands of people into shelters. […]
NARAYANGANJ, Bangladesh (AFP) — The death toll from a ferry disaster in Bangladesh jumped to 26 on Monday after rescuers pulled the vessel out of the water and found more bodies inside, officials said Monday. The sunken ferry was extracted from the heavily polluted Shitalakshya River in the central district of Narayanganj as hundreds of onlookers and relatives of the missing watched from the shore. “We have found 21 bodies today after the ship was […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — A railway maintenance worker whose truck rolled onto the tracks and sparked Taiwan’s worst train disaster in recent decades made a tearful apology on Sunday, saying he would cooperate with investigators. At least 50 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in Friday’s crash, which sent a packed eight-car train hurtling into the sides of a narrow tunnel near the eastern coastal city of Hualien. Investigators say the Taroko […]
MUMBAI, India (AFP) — Bollywood star Akshay Kumar said Sunday he has tested positive for Covid-19, becoming the latest Indian celebrity to contract the virus as the vast nation battles a new wave of cases. India reported 93,249 new daily infections on Sunday, according to health ministry data, the highest increase since September, taking the total known cases to almost 12.5 million. “I wish to inform everyone that, earlier this morning, I have tested positive […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II and lying nearly 6,500 meters below sea level off the Philippines has been reached in the world’s deepest shipwreck dive, an American exploration team said. A crewed submersible filmed, photographed and surveyed the wreckage of the USS Johnston off Samar Island during two eight-hour dives completed late last month, Texas-based undersea technology company Caladan Oceanic said. The 115-metre-long ship was sunk on […]
