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BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese vessels gathered near a disputed reef in the South China Sea are “fishing boats” sheltering from poor weather, the foreign ministry said Monday, a day after the Philippines described their presence as an incursion. China claims almost the entirety of the resource-rich sea, and has been accused by the United States of efforts to “intimidate, coerce and threaten other nations” to control it. The Philippines on Sunday said more than […]
MOSCOW Russia (AFP) — The backer of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine said Monday it had signed an agreement with an India-based pharmaceuticals giant for the production of up to 200 million doses of the jab a year. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, said in a statement it has partnered with the Virchow Group to produce up to 200 million doses of the two-dose vaccine in India every year. […]
ISALAMABAD, Pakistan (AFP) — Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, officials said, just two days after he received his first vaccination against the disease. The 68-year-old former top cricketer received a shot of the Chinese-produced Sinopharm vaccine on Thursday, as the country battles a third wave of the virus. “At this point, the prime minister’s office can only confirm that the honourable prime minister has tested positive for Covid-19 and […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan kicked off its coronavirus inoculation drive Monday with two top officials getting AstraZeneca shots in a bid to boost public confidence in a vaccine that has had a troubled rollout. Premier Su Tseng-chang and health minister Chen Shih-chung sat for jabs at a Taipei hospital after local authorities cleared the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant’s vaccine for use. “I am not feeling any pain at the spot or any soreness… I hope […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Makeshift barricades of bamboo, brick and burning rubber tyres have lent the streets of Myanmar’s largest city the look of an urban warzone, and now the military are forcing civilians to dismantle them, piece by piece… at gunpoint. Constructed using any material to hand, the barriers that have sprung up across Yangon offer scant protection against the live rounds the security forces have resorted to with increasing frequency and lethal effect […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s meteorological agency issued a tsunami advisory on Saturday, after a strong 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the northeastern coast. The quake hit at 6:09 pm (0909 GMT) in Pacific waters off Miyagi region with a depth of 60 kilometres (37 miles), the JMA said, issuing an advisory for tsunami waves of around one metre. There was no immediate reports of damage from Miyagi, and local utilities were inspecting the status […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Pyongyang announced Friday that it broke diplomatic ties with Malaysia after that country extradited a North Korean citizen to the United States, in a foreign ministry statement carried on state news wire KCNA. On March 17, Malaysian authorities “committed an unpardonable crime… of forcibly delivering the innocent citizen (of North Korea) to the United States,” the statement read. North Korea’s foreign ministry “hereby announces total severance of the diplomatic relations […]
NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for increased testing and local restrictions to halt an “emerging second peak” of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, as fresh daily cases hit a three-month high. The world’s third most infected nation with more than 11.4 million cases, India recorded a peak of just under 100,000 new daily infections in September, before a gradual decline. Infections fell to below 9,000 new cases in early […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea said Thursday it will ignore attempts by the US to contact it, the South’s Yonhap news agency reported, hours before President Joe Biden’s top envoys were to hold talks in Seoul. “No US-DPRK contact nor dialogue can take place until the US withdraws its hostile DPRK policy,” Yonhap cited senior North Korean minister Choe Son Hui as saying in a statement carried by state media. “Therefore, we will […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan will lift a virus state of emergency in the Tokyo area, the prime minister said Wednesday, less than five months before the postponed Tokyo Olympics are due to begin. Yoshihide Suga said the measure would not be extended past Sunday, when it is due to end, because indicators including daily new cases and hospital bed occupancy “pointed towards lifting the state of emergency”. The official decision to end the state […]
SAMARRA, Iraq (AFP) — Seven rockets targeted an Iraqi airbase housing US troops north of Baghdad on Monday, a security source said, the latest in a string of attacks Washington routinely blames on Iran-linked factions. The evening attack on Al-Balad did not cause any casualties or damage inside the base, the security official said. The other five rockets crashed into a nearby village, he added, noting that all seven were fired from a separate village […]
by Sunghee Hwang SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister slammed the US and South Korea on Tuesday, state media reported, as the new US secretaries of state and defence began a visit to Tokyo and Seoul. The US and South began joint military exercises last week and Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried a statement from Kim Yo Jong offering “a word of advice to the new administration […]
