Author: Desk Team

Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble to launch as scheduled
7Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
Singapore, World

Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble to launch as scheduled

Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble to launch as scheduled Office workers scan a Safe Entry QR code to enter a mall in Singapore on Monday. (Reuters photo) HONG KONG: Hong Kong will launch its quarantine-free travel bubble with Singapore as scheduled on May 26 despite sporadic local coronavirus infections, the city's commerce minister has said. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah offered the reassurance as Hong Kong confirmed two new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday. One involved a domestic helper arriving from the Philippines and the other a 42-year-old man linked to a local cluster of variant infections sparked by a 30-year-old engineer from Dubai. Yau said the city's seven-day moving average of unlinked local cases was lower than one, while Singapore's was ...
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Villages sealed off to keep SA Covid variant at bay
7Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Villages sealed off to keep SA Covid variant at bay

Villages sealed off to keep SA Covid variant at bay Officials explain the situation in tambon Koh Sathon of Narathiwat's Tak Bai district on Thursday. The entire tambon is under lockdown. (Photo by Waedao Harai) Nine villages in Tak Bai district, where the first cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 were detected on Saturday, remained closed to prevent the malignant strain from spreading to other areas in Narathiwat, a senior Public Health Ministry official said on Sunday. Disease Control Department chief Opas Karnkawinpong said nine villages in tambon Koh Sathon were under lockdown after health authorities detected the South African variant in three people, who fully recovered from the infections. The province had originally planned the lockdown only from May 8 to Saturday bu...
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Govt seeking ‘humanitarian’ solution for detained Myanmar journalists
7Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Govt seeking ‘humanitarian’ solution for detained Myanmar journalists

Govt seeking 'humanitarian' solution for detained Myanmar journalists FILE PHOTO: Police officers are seen outside Kamayut township court where the hearing of a group of journalists who were detained during anti-coup protests is scheduled, including that of Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw, in Yangon March 12, 2021. Thai police said on Tuesday they would deport three journalists and two activists back to Myanmar, where they would face certain arrest. (Reuters) Three reporters and two activists from Myanmar have been arrested in Chiang Mai for illegal entry and face possible deportation, the reporters' news organisation and local police said on Tuesday. Foreign ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat later said they were seeking a way out of the case. "Thai authorities concerned are coord...
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Duterte opposes full disclosure of deadly drug raid details
7Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Duterte opposes full disclosure of deadly drug raid details

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president has rejected full public disclosure of details of his administration’s deadly anti-drug crackdown, citing national security. President Rodrigo Duterte said in televised remarks Monday night that divulging confidential information like intelligence about suspects used by law enforcers for drug raids could undermine his administration’s campaign against criminality. Duterte has long faced demands from human rights groups to open up police records about the drug killings for scrutiny and for him to agree to an international investigation, a call he has steadfastly rejected. Duterte compared the anti-drug crackdown to the government’s war against communist New People’s Army guerrillas. “This is a national security issue like the NPA,” he s
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The Latest: DHS says no passport plans, clarifying Mayorkas
6Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
Business, World

The Latest: DHS says no passport plans, clarifying Mayorkas

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security says there won’t be any federal vaccination database nor any mandate that requires people to get a single vaccination credential. It says there are no plans for anything like a U.S. passport. DHS made the announcement Friday seeking to clarify what Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said earlier in response to a question in a TV interview. Mayorkas had said the agency was “taking a very close look” at the possibility of vaccine passports as the coronavirus pandemic eases and Americans begin to travel overseas. A DHS spokesperson says the agency is looking at how to ensure Americans traveling abroad have a quick and easy way to enter other countries. Mayorkas was asked on ABC’s “Good Morning America” if there could be “vaccine passports for trav
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Subdued but not silenced, Hong Kong tries to remember Tiananmen Massacre
6Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

Subdued but not silenced, Hong Kong tries to remember Tiananmen Massacre

HONG KONG—They had been barred from holding their usual memorial, but that did not mean they would not remember. They gathered online, to watch a reading of a play about the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing on June 4, 1989. They prowled bookstores, on a scavenger hunt for protest-themed postcards hidden in the stacks. They scribbled the numbers 6 and 4 on their light switches, so that everyday actions would become small acts of defiance. Democracy advocates in Hong Kong are grasping for new ways to sustain the memory of the Chinese military’s bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests, under a government increasingly bent on repressing dissent and free expression. The city’s authorities have, for the second year running, banned a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong’s
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Singapore shuts schools, Taiwan bars foreigners to battle outbreaks
6Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
Singapore, World

Singapore shuts schools, Taiwan bars foreigners to battle outbreaks

Singapore shuts schools, Taiwan bars foreigners to battle outbreaks A healthcare frontline worker prepares people to get their rapid test following a surge of coronavirus disease infections in Taipei, Taiwan on Monday. (Reuters photo) Singapore will close schools from Wednesday as authorities warned new coronavirus strains such as the one first detected in India were affecting more children. Taiwan also shut schools in the capital Taipei to control an outbreak, and the island banned all foreigners from entry or transit for a month unless they had a residency card. Both governments have been tightening restrictions to fight a recent rise in cases, after remaining relatively unscathed during the pandemic compared with the rest of the world. Authorities in Singapore said Sunday that prim...
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Film discovery unearths near-forgotten Silverton connection to marine disaster
6Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Film discovery unearths near-forgotten Silverton connection to marine disaster

Historians say they found a Kootenay connection in the chance discovery of some long-lost film footage of Canada’s worst maritime disaster. Shots of two Silverton survivors of the 1914 sinking of the Empress of Ireland were found in the ancient newsreel footage by Quebec media historians Sébastien Hudon and Louis Pelletier. The film, sold at an auction in 2020, shows images of the arrival of a ship carrying the bodies of several of the disaster’s victims, and the unloading of coffins at the dock in Quebec City. Filmed by an early pioneer of film news photography, it also contains unique images of one of the disaster’s heroes, Robert Crellin. He’s seen posing in front of Chateau Frontenac with Florence Barbour, the young girl he rescued from the glacial waters of the St. Lawrence River.
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Shares recover in volatile week for dollar, crypto
6Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
Business, China, Singapore, World

Shares recover in volatile week for dollar, crypto

Shares recover in volatile week for dollar, crypto Recap: Global shares rose yesterday amid optimism fed by strong US economic and earnings reports, while Covid restrictions receded in some countries. The upturn capped a volatile week in which worries about inflation and an early US interest-rate hike pushed the dollar near a three-month low, the cryptocurrency market tanked while gold and silver shone as safe-haven assets. The SET index moved in a range of 1,529.69 and 1,570.37 points this week before closing yesterday at 1,552.44, up by 0.19% from the previous week, in daily turnover averaging 90.25 billion baht. Retail investors were net buyers of 4.95 billion baht, institutional investors bought 1.73 billion and brokerage firms purchased 1.49 billion baht worth of shares. Foreign in...
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These parts of Asia beat coronavirus early. Here’s why they’re suddenly in lockdown
6Jun By Desk TeamNo Comments
Asia, Business, Singapore, World

These parts of Asia beat coronavirus early. Here’s why they’re suddenly in lockdown

TAIPEI, TAIWAN—While much of the world is moving beyond the pandemic, Taiwan, which for so long had kept the virus at bay, is unnerved by scenes countries have long forgotten: listless streets, shuttered shops, a run on toilet paper and untold empty seats on subways. The sudden reversal in Taiwan’s status mirrors setbacks unfolding across Asia. Nations that were lauded and often envied for the way they controlled COVID-19 — keeping death tolls low and allowing millions to work, attend schools and dine out — are now beset by new lockdowns, dwindling hospital beds and growing fatigue as the pandemic wears on. That feeling of defeat is most profound here. For the first time since COVID-19 emerged, Taiwan has imposed strict lockdown measures to stop a virus that’s killed more than 3.3 millio
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