A health worker inoculates a doctor with COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at the BAPS Yogiji Maharaj Hospital in Ahmedabad on Jan 22, 2021. (SAM PANTHAKY / AFP) CAIRO / NEW DELHI / BAGHDAD /JERUSALEM / AMMAN / BEIRUT / ULAN BATOR / YANGON / WELLINGTON / SINGAPORE / ANKARA / SEOUL / MANILA / BANGKOK – […]
In this Dec 17, 2014 photo, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi enters the mission of the European Union building in Geneva. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP) TEHRAN – A senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official said Iran is "not interested" in direct contacts with the new US administration "at the moment," official IRNA news agency reported […]
A handout photo taken and released by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on March 29, 2020 shows Saudi-led coalition spokesman Colonel Turki Al-Malki giving explanations during a press conference, in Riyadh, on the displayed missile's debris fired on March 28 by Yemeni Houthi military group. (SPA / AFP) RIYADH – The Saudi-led coalition involved in […]
People wearing face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus walk towards a train station in Tokyo, Japan, Jan 22, 2021. (HIRO KOMAE / AP) MELBOURNE / RAMALLAH / SINGAPORE / MANILA / NEW DELHI / BANGKOK / ULANBAATAR / TOKYO – Japan's COVID-19 death toll topped 5,000 on Saturday, according to the latest […]
The Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javad Zarif, speaks during a meeting with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez (out of frame), in Havana, on Nov 6, 2020. (YAMIL LAGE / AFP) NEW YORK – Iran urged new US President Joe Biden on Friday to “choose a better path” by returning to a […]
Troops applaud as then US vice-president Mike Pence speaks in a hangar at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan on Dec 21, 2017. (MANDEL NGAN / POOL / AFP) WASHINGTON – The United States will review the peace agreement reached with the Taliban last year, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Afghan counterpart […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before their talks in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua] HONG KONG – Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been awarded the title of “Man of the Year 2020” by Pakistan Observer based in […]
A woman cycles while her pet dog runs alongside her at a park in Singapore on Jan 15, 2021. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP) KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA / DUBAI – Singaporeans should toss their yusheng raw fish dish into the air quietly in the traditional lohei celebration as they usher in the Year of the […]
Investigators inspect pieces of the Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182 retrieved from the Java Sea where the passenger jet crashed on Jan 9. (PHOTO / AFP) JAKARTA – Indonesia’s air accident investigator is probing whether a problem with the autothrottle system, that controls engine power automatically, contributed to the Sriwijaya Air crash on Jan 9 that […]
KUALA LUMPUR – The first Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Digital Ministers' Meeting on Friday adopted the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 (ADM2025) to guide the group's digital cooperation from 2021 to 2025. In a joint declaration after the meeting, the ministers said the plan would prioritize ASEAN's recovery from COVID-19, connect businesses and facilitate […]
This Jan 8, 2021 shows Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivering a televised speech on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of 1978 revolt in Qom which ignited the Iranian Revolution. (PHOTO / AFP) DUBAI – The Twitter account of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday carried the image of a golfer […]
SYDNEY – Alphabet Inc's Google said on Friday it would block its search engine in Australia if the government proceeds with a new code that would force it and Facebook Inc to pay media companies for the right to use their content. Google's threat escalates a battle with publishers such as News Corp that is being […]
The ruling Mongolian People’s Party has nominated Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene as the next premier after Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and his government resigned on Thursday, following protests against his government’s COVID-19 control measures erupted in the capital Ulaanbaatar. Oyun-Erdene received full support from members of the party who attended an online conference on Friday. PM Ukhnaa Khurelsukh proposed the resignation […]
People and security forces gather at the site of a deadly bomb attack in a market in Iraq, Jan 21, 2021. (PHOTO / AP) BAGHDAD / CAIRO / TEHRAN / VATICAN CITY – Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in a crowded Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least 32 people in Iraq’s first big […]
Reflections of people walking are seen on a building in Tokyo, Japan, on July 9, 2019. (KIYOSHI OTA / BLOOMBERG) TOKYO – Suicides increased in Japan during 2020 after a decade of declines, with the number of women committing suicide surging amid the emotional and financial stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic even as fewer […]
A Syrian woman, who was stranded following the closure of border due to the COVID-19 pandemic, waits with a child to cross into Iraqi Kurdistan from the Syrian side of the Semalka border crossing in northeastern Syria on July 29, 2020. (DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP) TEHRAN – Iran's UN envoy urged for "immediate" removal of […]
People and security forces gather at the site of a deadly bomb attack in a market in Iraq, Jan 21, 2021. (PHOTO / AP) BAGHDAD / CAIRO / TEHRAN / VATICAN CITY – Two men blew themselves up in a crowded Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least 32 people in Iraq’s first big suicide bombing […]
This handout photo taken and released by the Indian Navy on November 18, 2020 shows an Indian army helicopter on the deck on an aircraft carrier during the second phase of the Malabar naval exercise in the Arabian sea. (INDIAN NAVY / AFP) NEW DELHI – India's defense ministry Thursday said a large-scale joint military […]
People wearing face masks walk through Chinatown in Bangkok on Jan 2, 2021, after the Thailand's capital imposed temporary lockdown measures aimed at curbing the rising coronavirus toll. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG) ANKARA / DHAKA / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / KUALA LUMPUR / SEOUL / COLOMBO / DUBAI / MANILA / HANOI – Thailand approved AstraZeneca Plc’s […]
The National Transportation Safety Committee examine debris in Jakarta, on Jan 13, 2020. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG) JAKARTA – Indonesian authorities said on Thursday the search for victims of a plane crash that killed all 62 people on board had been halted, but the hunt would continue for the Sriwijaya Air jet’s cockpit voice recorder […]
Thailand's Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit gestures as he talks to the media during a press conference at the party's headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand. (SAKCHAI LALIT / AP) BANGKOK – A banned Thai opposition politician, who is facing a criminal complaint of defaming the monarchy, defended on Thursday his criticism of the government's coronavirus […]
Japan's justice minister Katsuyuki Kawai speaks to journalists after submitting his resignation in Tokyo on Oct 31, 2019. (PHOTO / AFP) TOKYO – A Japanese court found on Thursday the lawmaker wife of a former justice minister guilty of vote-buying. Katsuyuki, under trial separately, has long had close ties to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who […]
In this Jan 5, 2017 file photo, workers stand on a stairway aboard an offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf's Salman Oil Field, operated by the National Iranian Offshore Oil Co, near Lavan island, Iran. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG) India is hoping US President Joe Biden’s administration will take a softer line against adversaries Iran […]
Mongolia's Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh (right) attends a conference on support measures for the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia, on March 27, 2020. (BYAMBASUREN BYAMBA-OCHIR / AFP) ULAN BATOR – Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh resigned on Thursday after outrage over the treatment of a coronavirus patient who had just delivered […]
This handout picture taken and released on Jan 19, 2021 by Indonesia's presidential palace shows Indonesian President Joko Widodo (second left) visiting Mamuju, after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Jan 15. (HANDOUT / INDONESIA'S PRESIDENTIAL PALACE / AFP) JAKARTA – The death toll of the 6.2-magnitude earthquake which hit the Indonesian province […]
A picture taken on January 20, 2021 shows the Israeli settlement of Pisgat Zeev (left), built in a suburb of the mostly Arab east Jerusalem, and the Palestinian Shuafat refugee camp (right) behind Israel's controversial separation wall. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) RAMALLAH – A senior Palestinian official condemned on Wednesday an Israeli decision to construct […]
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shows up in the inauguration ceremony of the new Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora, in La Paz, on Nov 8, 2020. （PHOTO / AFP） TEHRAN – Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif welcomed on Tuesday night his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani's call for dialogue […]
A vial of the Covishield vaccine, developed by Oxford-Astrazeneca Plc and manufactured by Serum Institute of India Ltd, in a cool box at a vaccine center in the Bandra Kurla Complex hospital in Mumbai, India, Jan 16, 2021. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG) TOKYO / KABUL / DHAKA / SEOUL / DUBAI / JAKARTA / JERUSALEM / […]
Farmers sit along a blocked highway as they continue to protest against the central government's recent agricultural reforms at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh state border in Ghazipur on January 18, 2021. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP) A Supreme Court panel in India refused to issue orders on the government’s petition to stop a proposed rally by farmers […]
Thanathorn Juangroongruankit, former leader of the disbanded opposition Future Forward Party, stands next to an isolation chamber for COVID-19 coronavirus patients developed by engineers and being produced at his family’s factory in Bangkok on April 21, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP) BANGKOK – Thailand’s government on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint of defaming the monarchy against […]