Author: Desk Team

Mr Terada said that Nipro introduced two disposable vaccination Dosesaver syringes to the Thai market during December of 2021. Japanese medical equipment manufacturer Nipro Corporation recently unveiled the company's innovative disposable syringes, a timely solution that can stretch the Covid-19 vaccine dosage amid an increase in Covid-19 infections and warnings against the latest Omicron variant. Yo Terada, president of Nipro Sales (Thailand), told the Bangkok Post that the specially designed syringes called Dosesaver™ would propel efforts to quell the spread of the virus, especially in countries facing issues relating to limited vaccine supplies. "There are several methods to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 and mitigate the symptoms. Vaccination remains one of the easiest ways to incr

Kazakhstan and the price of Russia's empire Paratroopers from Russia's elite Spetsnaz brigade, the shock troops of the Russian military, have arrived in Kazakhstan to suppress violent, nationwide protests against the country's Kremlin-friendly regime. The action comes at a time when Russian troops are already massed near Ukraine's border, and just 15 months after a Russian rifle brigade intervened to end the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. Is President Vladimir Putin really attempting to rebuild the Russian Empire? Of course, it is impossible to know with any certainty what the Kremlin sphinx has in mind. But, whatever Mr Putin's intentions, his actions are fatally undermining the idea that underpinned the Russian Federation's creation 30 years ago. Boris Ye...

Refugee policy needs rethink The influx of ethnic Karen refugees fleeing war in Myanmar across the Thai border has raised questions yet again over Thailand's policies on refugees and its cosy ties with the Myanmar military. In the ongoing civil war on the Thai-Myanmar border, Myanmar troops clashed with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU) in the Myawaddy township opposite Tak's Mae Sot district in December last year. The battles culminated in deadly airstrikes and heavy artillery attacks on Christmas Day. Thousands of civilians, mostly ethnic Karen villagers, fled for their lives, crossing the Moei River to seek safety in Mae Sot. When the Myanmar army sent planes to bomb KNU bases, the rockets and gunfire from heavy artillery att...

Flying through the Covid cloud has been hard enough, and then there's the added drama of dealing with the lengthening shadow of China across the region. Pandemic drags on recovery: In the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, many Asian countries had enviable success, avoiding large-scale outbreaks and mass deaths. But the arrival of the more transmissible Delta variant this year and sluggish vaccine rollouts compounded by low availability sent cases surging. Combined with poor monitoring and easy movement among countries, often unofficially, Southeast Asia became a virus hotspot. The ballooning health crisis collided with churning political discontent in the case of Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. Economically, the new wave of infections, and attendant restrictions imposed to cu...

Toronto is joining Brampton and other municipalities morally and financially supporting a challenge to the Quebec law that has banned a hijab-wearing teacher from her Grade 3 classroom. City council approved by a 25-0 vote a Mayor John Tory motion that stated: “This law diminishes rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms and stands contrary to the values of Torontonians and Canadians — values this council has been vigilant in protecting and upholding.” It calls on other Canadian municipalities “to affirm their opposition to Bill 21 and provide financial contributions to support the legal challenge” and pledges $100,000 from Toronto toward the legal fight against the controversial law. Earlier Tory tweeted: “I stand with Brampton Mayor (Patrick) Brown and Brampton C

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The death toll from the strongest typhoon to batter the Philippines this year climbed to 375, with more than 50 others still missing and several central provinces struggling with downed communications and power outages and pleading for food and water, officials said Monday. At its strongest, Typhoon Rai packed sustained winds of 195 kilometers (121 miles) per hour with gusts of up to 270 kph (168 mph) before blowing out into the South China Sea on Friday. At least 375 people were killed, 56 were missing and 500 were injured, according to the national police. The toll may still increase because several towns and villages remained out of reach due to downed communications and power outages, although massive cleanup and repair efforts were underway. Many were kil

MOMBASA, KENYA (REUTERS) - China said on Thursday (Jan 6) it would appoint a special envoy to foster peace in the turbulent Horn of Africa and wanted to shift focus on the continent to trade over infrastructure. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comments in Kenya, which has been active in diplomatic efforts to halt war in Ethiopia since late 2020 between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal government. He also visited Eritrea, which borders the northern Tigray region and has been an ally of Mr Abiy in a conflict that has killed thousands of people, uprooted hundreds of thousands, and spread hunger. "To share political consensus and to coordinate actions, China will appoint a special envoy of the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs for the H...

GORO, NEW CALEDONIA (NYTIMES) - From the reef-fringed coast of New Caledonia, the Coral Sea stretches into the South Pacific. Slender native pines punctuate the shoreline. The landscape, one of the most biodiverse on the planet, is astonishingly beautiful until the crest of a hill where a different vista unfolds: a gouged red earth pierced by belching smokestacks and giant trucks rumbling across the lunar-like terrain. This is Goro, the largest nickel mine on a tiny French territory suspended between Australia and Fiji that may hold up to one-quarter of the world's nickel reserves. It also poses a critical test for Tesla, the world's largest electric vehicle maker, which wants to take control of its supply chain and ensure that the minerals used for its car batteries are mined in an env...

Kazakh leader says order 'mainly restored' The unrest raised fears of a destabilisation of Kazakhstan, a major energy exporter and producer of uranium, and long seen as the most stable of the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia. ALMATY: Kazakhstan's president said on Friday that order had been mostly restored in the country after days of unprecedented violence that saw a Moscow-led military alliance send troops to help quell unrest. The interior ministry said security forces had taken all the country's regions "under increased protection" and that 26 "armed criminals" had been killed and 18 wounded in the unrest. "The constitutional order has been mainly restored in all regions," President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a statement after meeting with top officials. "But terrorists are ...

HONG KONG (AP) — As the days of 2021 dwindled, so did any remaining traces of democracy in Hong Kong. On Wednesday, a vocal pro-democracy media outlet -- one of the last openly critical voices in the city -- closed after a police raid. Earlier in December, the opposition was shut out from elections under a new law that puts all candidates to a loyalty test. And monuments commemorating the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were taken down. Again and again throughout the year, the city’s authorities and the central government in Beijing stamped out nearly everything the pro-democracy movement had stood for. Activists fled abroad or were locked up under the draconian National Security Law imposed on the city 18 months ago. Unions and other independent organizations closed down. Where once