Asia

Japan may ease virus entry restrictions next month: reports

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan is considering easing strict coronavirus border restrictions from October to allow more foreign nationals to enter, local media reported Wednesday. Tourists would still be banned and only longer-term visas approved, the reports said, as the nation looks to rebuild its economy and prepare for the postponed Olympics next year. Japan currently bans entry for foreigners from most countries, but has been negotiating the gradual resumption of cross-border business travel. Business […]

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Death toll in India building collapse jumps to 35

MUMBAI, India (AFP) — The death toll from an apartment block collapse in western India jumped to 35 Wednesday, officials said, as hopes of finding anyone else alive dimmed. Emergency workers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have so far pulled 20 survivors from the rubble of the three-storey building in Bhiwandi, near Mumbai. An NDRF spokesman and local authorities told reporters that recovery teams, aided by sniffer dogs, retrieved 35 bodies buried under […]

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Pandemic panners: Indonesians hunt for gold in desperate times

by Helena Kobogau, with Haeril Halim in Jakarta TIMIKA, Indonesia (AFP) — With the coronavirus devastating jobs across the country, desperate Indonesians are flocking to illegal gold mines as the soaring price of the precious metal overrides the risk to their lives and the environment. Spooked by the economic destruction wrought by the pandemic, consumers and investors around the world have been snapping up gold, which is seen as a hedge against volatility, sending its […]

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Death toll from India building collapse jumps to 20

  MUMBAI, India (AFP) — The death toll from an apartment block collapse in western India climbed to 20 Tuesday, with more bodies likely to be recovered, officials said, as rescuers searched for survivors. Emergency workers from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have pulled 20 survivors — including two boys aged four and seven — from the rubble of the building in Bhiwandi, near Mumbai. An NDRF spokesman told reporters that recovery teams, aided […]

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China ‘must back off’, says Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan on Tuesday demanded that China “back off” and accused it of threatening peace after a Beijing official rejected a largely respected marine boundary following recent incursions. Foreign minister Joseph Wu urged Beijing to “return to the civilized international standards” after a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said there was no so-called median line in the Taiwan Strait “as Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory”. Wu told reporters: “The median […]

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Trump and new Japan PM Suga discuss ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’: US

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Sunday spoke to Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, to congratulate him on taking office and to discuss a “free and open Indo-Pacific” region, which is increasingly dominated by China. Beijing’s expanding military presence in the region has worried several of its neighbors, and Washington has vowed to stand up against its territorial claims. China is locked in disputes with neighbors including Japan and […]

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Ten dead, up to 25 feared trapped in India building collapse

BHIWANDI, India (AFP) — Ten people were killed and up to 25 were feared trapped after a three-storey residential building collapsed before dawn on Monday in western India, officials said. The accident in the city of Bhiwandi, which neighbors India’s financial capital Mumbai, occurred around 3:40 am (2210 GMT Sunday), local authorities said. “Ten people have died, we have rescued 11 people alive,” an official at the Thane city authority, which oversees Bhiwandi, told AFP. […]

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Lost at sea: surfboard drifts 8,000 km from Hawaii to Philippines

by Mikhail FLORES MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — When big wave surfer Doug Falter lost his board in a wipeout in Hawaii, his best hope was for a local fisherman to pick it up. He never imagined it would be found more than 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) away in the southern Philippines. More than two years after watching his pale blue custom-shaped board disappear in the huge swell of Waimea Bay, Falter was alerted via social […]

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China launches sanctions regime after US moves on TikTok, WeChat

by Dan Martin Agence France Presse China on Saturday launched a mechanism that would allow it to sanction foreign companies, upping the ante in a tech war with the United States a day after Washington moved to curb popular Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat. China’s long-expected “unreliable entities list” is seen as a weapon for Beijing to retaliate against the United States, which has used its own “entity list” to shut Chinese telecom giant Huawei […]

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China holds military exercises near Taiwan as US diplomat visits

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — China said Friday it was conducting military exercises near the Taiwan Strait, as a top US diplomat visits the self-ruled island in a move that has angered Beijing. Relations between the United States and China are at their lowest point in decades, with the two sides clashing over a range of trade, military and security issues as well as the coronavirus pandemic. Keith Krach, US undersecretary of state for economic […]

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China lab leak infects thousands with bacterial disease

  BEIJING, China (AFP) — Thousands of people in northwest China have tested positive for a bacterial disease after a leak from a state-owned biopharmaceutical plant making animal vaccines last year. Health officials in Lanzhou city said 3,245 people had contracted brucellosis, a disease often caused by close contact with infected animals or animal products that can bring about fevers, joint pain and headaches. Another 1,401 people tested as an early positive for the disease, […]

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Yoshihide Suga named Japan’s new prime minister

by Hiroshi HIYAMA / Sara HUSSEIN TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Yoshihide Suga became Japan’s new prime minister on Wednesday, with the former chief cabinet secretary expected to stick closely to policies championed by Shinzo Abe during his record-breaking tenure. Suga, 71, won an easy victory in a parliamentary vote, where his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds a commanding majority. He bowed deeply as lawmakers applauded his win, but made no immediate comment. He is […]

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