Lam Wing-kee: HK bookseller who defied China opens shop in Taiwan
A Hong Kong bookseller who defied mainland China has reopened his bookshop in Taiwan. Lam Wing-kee was one of five booksellers detained in 2015 after selling material critical of the political elite on China’s mainland. He fled to Taiwan last year for fear he would...
Coronavirus: India allows small shops to reopen
India has allowed small local stores to reopen more than a month after the country went into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. The interior ministry said only half of staff should work and they had to follow precautions such as wearing face masks and...
Here’s who is joining the World Health Organization’s new vaccine efforts
Leaders from around the world joined the World Health Organization, after it announced the launch of a new effort to accelerate the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s what they’re saying: Melinda Gates, speaking for the Bill and...
Wuhan weathered Covid-19. But can it survive what comes next?
It was just three months ago that Mr Wang was paying the workers at his Wuhan restaurant their Chinese New Year bonuses and celebrating his third year in business. Now, after 76 days under lockdown in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, he has been...
Singapore reports nearly 900 new cases
Singapore recorded 897 new coronavirus cases as of 12 p.m. local time on Friday amid a second wave of infections centered around migrant worker dormitories. Among the new cases, the vast majority are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories, while 13 are Singaporean...
Rep. Andy Barr: Coronavirus — Congress, make China answer for pandemic
Since the end of February, over 47,000 Americans have died as a result of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, the government has shut down wide swaths of the U.S. economy, more than 4 in 10 Americans say they’ve had their wages cut or lost their jobs,...
Wuhan weathered Covid-19. But can it survive what comes next?
It was just three months ago that Mr Wang was paying the workers at his Wuhan restaurant their Chinese New Year bonuses and celebrating his third year in business. Now, after 76 days under lockdown in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, he has been...
Coronavirus lockdown: Nobel prize economist says India must do more for poor
A Nobel-prize winning economist has said India needs to be “much more generous” in providing relief to the millions of people who have been direly hit by the ongoing lockdown. “We haven’t done anything close to enough,” Indian-American academic Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, told the BBC....
Indonesia will ban domestic air and sea travel until early June
Indonesia will temporarily ban domestic air and sea travel beginning Friday until early June, barring a few exceptions, to prevent further spread of coronavirus, Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati said today. The ban on air travel will be in place until June 1, and the...
China pledges additional $30 million to World Health Organization
China is donating an additional $30 million to the World Health Organization to support its flight against the coronavirus pandemic, according to a tweet from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying Thursday. “China has decided to donate additional $30 million in cash to WHO to...
Singapore reports more than 1,000 new cases for fourth day in a row
New coronavirus cases hit four figures for a fourth consecutive day in Singapore on Thursday as the Southeast Asian city state grapples with a second wave of infections centered around migrant worker dormitories. A total of 1,037 new cases were recorded as of 12 p.m....
Coronavirus: Australia urges G20 action on wildlife wet markets
The Australian government is calling for the G20 countries to take action on wildlife wet markets, calling them a “biosecurity and human health risk”. Australia is not yet calling for a ban – but says its own advisers believe they may need to be “phased...
Coronavirus: The controversy over ‘India’s first virus fatality’
In his last pictures, Muhammad Husain Siddiqui, wearing a brimless cap and brown tunic, is peering into the camera. It is the last day of February. Siddiqui has just returned to India after a month-long stay with his younger son, who works as a dentist...
Tsunami risk identified near future Indonesian capital
Scientists have identified a potential tsunami risk in the region chosen by Indonesia for its new capital. The researchers mapped evidence of multiple ancient underwater landslides in the Makassar Strait between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi. If the largest of these were repeated today,...
Some recovered South Korean Covid-19 patients re-tested positive, but likely aren’t contagious
South Korean officials say analysis of samples from recovered Covid-19 patients show all had formed neutralizing antibodies, but almost half still showed viral genetic material, Korean Centers for Disease Control (KCDC) Director Dr. Jung Eun-kyeong said at a press briefing Wednesday. She added that these...
Pakistan’s prime minister tests negative for coronavirus
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested negative for Covid-19, Dr. Zafar Mirza, his special adviser on health, announced in a tweet Wednesday. “I am happy to report that his test is NEGATIVE,” Mirza tweeted. Some background: The decision to test Khan came after Pakistan’s...
Indian government boosts protection for health workers
The Indian government has introduced an urgent executive order to discourage violence against health workers. The country’s Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, has been amended, and those found guilty now face imprisonment from 6 months to 7 years. “Health workers who are trying to save the...
Bangladeshi garment workers face ruin as global brands ditch clothing contracts amid coronavirus pandemic
When Fatema Akther arrived for work at the Alif Casual Wear garment factory in Dhaka in late March, she had no idea it would be her last day. “My line chief came and told me that I didn’t have to work anymore,” said Akther, 25,...
Top infectious disease specialist believes a second wave of Covid-19 later this year is “likely”
Jung Eun-kyeong, the director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, believes that it is likely the country will see a second wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic. “Unless herd immunity is achieved through natural spread or through vaccines, come autumn or winter...
Article 370: Concern as Kashmir police investigate journalists
Journalists in Indian-administered Kashmir have expressed alarm at reporters being investigated by police under a stringent anti-terrorism law. Gowhar Geelani is the third journalist in recent days to face such action. He is accused of “glorifying terrorism” through his social media posts. The Editors Guild...
Japan discovers cluster in foster home
There’s been a virus cluster in a Japanese care home for infants, with eight children testing positive. They had been tested after one staff member was confirmed positive. None of the children were showing major symptoms but they have been taken to hospital, a spokeswoman...
Singapore cases pass 10,000
The number of cases in Singapore has crossed the 10,000 mark, tipped over by 1,016 new cases reported on Wednesday. Singapore now has the highest number of cases in South East Asia, with a large majority of these cases linked to dormitories that house foreign...
India passes tough new law to curb attacks on doctors
The Indian government has passed a law by which those who are found guilty of attacking doctors or health workers can be sentenced to up to seven years in jail. Doctors, nurses and community health workers from across the country have reported being attacked –...
Pakistan’s prime minister will test undergo coronavirus test
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan will undergo testing for Covid-19 after he met a philanthropist last week who later was diagnosed with coronavirus, said Dr. Faisal Sultan, Khan’s personal physician and senior adviser on coronavirus. Sultan confirmed Tuesday that “all protocols are in place” regarding...
Iran: “We have not contained the pandemic”
Iran has not yet “contained” the coronavirus pandemic, Iraj Harirchi, Iran’s deputy health minister, said on Iranian state television today. We have not contained the pandemic and we cannot predict any deadline for it,” he said. Iran’s Health Ministry spokesperson Kianush Jahanpour announced at least...
A free press in China may have helped prevent coronavirus pandemic, media watchdog says
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders criticized China for censoring early coverage of the coronavirus outbreak, telling CNN that the global pandemic may have been averted or lessened had journalists had more freedom in the country. Strongman leaders around the world are using the coronavirus crisis...
Doctors and nurses in India are being “abused and beaten up,” says healthcare body
Health care workers in India need to be protected by a nationwide law after a spate of violence against doctors and nurses, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said on Monday. The group issued a statement saying that “doctors have been abused, beaten up, denied entry...
More than 50 journalists have tested positive for coronavirus in this Indian city
A total of 53 journalists tested positive for Covid-19 last week in in Mumbai, India, according to the local council body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. BMC said it had tested 167 journalists in the city who were reporting on the crisis. Those who tested positive are...
Singapore confirms more than 1,000 new cases, majority of whom are migrant workers
Singapore confirmed 1,111 new cases of the novel coronavirus today, the vast majority of whom are work permit holders residing in foreign worker dormitories. Only 20 cases were Singaporean citizens or permanent residents, according to the health ministry. Less than a month ago, the city-state...
Kim Jong-un illness rumours denied amid intense speculation
Reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seriously ill after heart surgery are not true, officials in South Korea have said. Headlines that Kim Jong-un was “gravely ill”, “brain-dead” or “recovering from an operation” were always going to be impossible to verify. But the...