Category: Asia / Pacific

Issued on: 04/05/2020 – 05:12 New Zealand on Monday recorded no new cases of the coronavirus for the first time since March 16 and less than a week after the Pacific nation ended a strict lockdown that appears to have contained the outbreak. Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a news conference the result […]

Issued on: 03/05/2020 – 09:56Modified: 03/05/2020 – 09:56 Robots delivering meals, ghostly figures in hazmat suits and cameras pointed at front doors: China’s methods to enforce coronavirus quarantines have looked like a sci-fi dystopia for legions of people. Authorities have taken drastic steps to ensure that people do not break isolation rules after China largely […]

Issued on: 03/05/2020 – 10:02Modified: 03/05/2020 – 10:02 South Korea’s assessment is that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not have surgery, local news outlet Yonhap said, citing an unidentified senior official at presidential Blue House.  “There were speculative reports that Chairman Kim underwent a surgery citing some difference to his walk,” the official was cited as saying.”We have […]

Issued on: 03/05/2020 – 06:54Modified: 03/05/2020 – 06:54 North and South Korean troops exchanged fire along their tense border on Sunday, the South’s military said, blaming North Korean soldiers for targeting a guard post. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a statement that North Korean troops fired several bullets at a South […]

Issued on: 02/05/2020 – 09:59Modified: 02/05/2020 – 09:59 The United States tweeted its support for Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations Friday, provoking a sharp response from China expressing “strong indignation and firm opposition.” The tweet from the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said the 193-member global organization was founded to serve “all voices,” […]

Issued on: 02/05/2020 – 00:40 North Korea’s state news agency KCNA said on Saturday leader Kim Jong Un attended the completion of a fertilizer plant in a region north of the capital, Pyongyang, in the first report of his public activity since April 11. Reuters could not independently verify the KCNA report.KCNA reported that Kim cut a ribbon at […]

Issued on: 27/04/2020 – 03:55 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is “alive and well”, a top security adviser to the South’s President Moon Jae-in said, downplaying rumours over Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary. “Our government position is firm,” said Moon’s special adviser on national security Moon Chung-in, in an interview with […]

Issued on: 22/04/2020 – 09:04Modified: 22/04/2020 – 09:04 Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced they had successfully launched the country’s first military satellite on Wednesday, at a time of fresh tensions with US forces in the Gulf. The United States alleges Iran’s satellite programme is a cover for its development of missiles, while the Islamic republic has […]

Issued on: 22/04/2020 – 05:34 North Korean state media on Wednesday made no mention of new appearances by leader Kim Jong Un, a day after intense international speculation over his health was sparked by media reports he was gravely ill after a cardiovascular procedure. South Korean and Chinese officials and sources familiar with U.S. intelligence […]

Issued on: 21/04/2020 – 16:38Modified: 21/04/2020 – 16:38 After 76 days under lockdown, China’s Wuhan city is gradually returning to a new normal. But while Covid-19 infection rates have fallen, social distancing measures are still in place and the economic repercussions for the industrial hub are also becoming clear. A bride in a long gown poses by […]

Issued on: 21/04/2020 – 05:47Modified: 21/04/2020 – 05:47 South Korea played down a report Tuesday that the North’s leader Kim Jong Un was being treated after surgery, as speculation mounted over his absence from a key anniversary. Pyongyang marked the birthday of its late founder, Kim’s grandfather Kim Il Sung, on April 15 — by far the most important date in its […]

Issued on: 19/04/2020 – 06:52Modified: 19/04/2020 – 06:52 Foreign governments criticised the arrest of 15 Hong Kong democracy activists in a police sweep on charges of organising and participating in anti-government protests last year. The arrests on Saturday were the biggest crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement since the outbreak of mass protests last year.The International Bar […]

Issued on: 18/04/2020 – 19:57 Police in Hong Kong carried out a sweeping operation against high-profile democracy campaigners on Saturday, arresting 15 activists on charges related to massive protests that rocked the Asian financial hub last year. Among those targeted was 72-year-old media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of anti-establishment newspaper Apple Daily, who was arrested […]

Issued on: 17/04/2020 – 05:19Modified: 17/04/2020 – 05:19 China’s economy shrank for the first time since at least 1992 in the first quarter, as the coronavirus outbreak paralysed production and spending, raising pressure on authorities to do more to stop mounting job losses. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 6.8% in January-March year-on-year, official data showed […]

Issued on: 16/04/2020 – 11:03Modified: 16/04/2020 – 11:05 At a large food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, signs forbid the selling of wild animals and live fowl, while announcements calling for “victory” over COVID-19 play on a loop from speakers. China’s “wet markets” have been slammed internationally as the coronavirus roils the world, […]

Issued on: 16/04/2020 – 10:30Modified: 16/04/2020 – 10:30 A former North Korean diplomat has won a parliamentary seat in South Korea’s swankiest district Gangnam, four years after fleeing a London embassy and becoming Pyongyang’s highest-ranking official to defect to the South. Thae Yong Ho was Pyongyang’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom where he had managed secret funds […]

Issued on: 16/04/2020 – 01:38Modified: 16/04/2020 – 01:38 South Korea’s left-leaning ruling party won a landslide victory in Wednesday’s general election, partial results showed, after the coronavirus pandemic turned the political tide in President Moon Jae-in’s favour.  The country uses a mix of first-past-the-post seats and proportional representation, but even before all the individual constituencies […]

Issued on: 15/04/2020 – 15:10Modified: 15/04/2020 – 15:10 China on Tuesday denied criticising France’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying there had been “misunderstandings” after French officials summoned the Chinese ambassador in Paris. “China has never issued negative comments on the way France has handled the epidemic,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a […]

Issued on: 15/04/2020 – 05:24 South Koreans began going to the polls on Wednesday to elect members of parliament, wearing masks and plastic gloves as part of strict safety measures in one of the first national elections held amid the coronavirus pandemic. About 14,000 polling stations were open at 6 a.m. (0900 GMT) around the country […]

Issued on: 14/04/2020 – 14:50Modified: 14/04/2020 – 14:51 A spike in racial discrimination in China prompted by fears over the Covid-19 pandemic has led some in the African diapora to reevaluate the relationship between the African continent and Beijing. Over the past week, footage has been published on social media showing Africans in the southern Chinese […]

Issued on: 14/04/2020 – 11:56Modified: 14/04/2020 – 11:56 North Korea launched multiple short-range anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea and Sukhoi jets fired air-to-surface missiles on Tuesday as part of its ongoing military exercises, South Korea’s military said. The missile tests came on the eve of a national holiday in North Korea to celebrate the birthday of Kim Il-Sung, the […]

Issued on: 14/04/2020 – 09:20Modified: 14/04/2020 – 09:21 India’s nationwide coronavirus lockdown, the biggest in the world, will be extended until at least May 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday. The current three-week-old lockdown of the nation of 1.3 billion people had been scheduled to end at midnight Tuesday.”From the economic angle, we have […]

Issued on: 14/04/2020 – 04:43 China has approved early-stage human tests for two experimental vaccines to combat the new coronavirus that killed over 100,000 people worldwide, state media Xinhua reported on Tuesday. The vaccines are being developed by a Beijing-based unit of Nasdaq-listed Sinovac Biotech, and by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, an affiliate […]

Issued on: 13/04/2020 – 13:44Modified: 13/04/2020 – 13:52 While China has made gains stamping out the coronavirus, one province in the country’s north-east has seen a troubling rise. With 98 of China’s 108 new coronavirus cases today the result of imported infections, primarily from Russia, authorities are worried about a second wave.

Issued on: 13/04/2020 – 04:16Modified: 13/04/2020 – 04:16 China reported the highest number of new daily coronavirus cases in nearly six weeks, driven by a rise in infected travellers arriving from overseas and underscoring challenges Beijing faces in preventing a second wave of COVID-19. A total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported on Sunday, […]

Issued on: 13/04/2020 – 04:30 African ambassadors in China have written to the country’s foreign minister over what they call discrimination against Africans as the country seeks to prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus. Several African countries have separately also demanded that China address their concerns that Africans, in particular in the southern city of Guangzhou, are being mistreated […]

Issued on: 12/04/2020 – 11:08Modified: 12/04/2020 – 11:08 China is stepping up scrutiny of inbound foreigners and tightening border control after the number of single-day imported coronavirus cases set a record, helping double the daily number of newly detected infections. New confirmed cases in mainland China reached 99 on April 11 from 46 the previous […]