WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s conservative opposition switched leaders Friday in a last-gasp bid to counter the record support Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is enjoying for containing the coronavirus.National Party lawmakers voted to ditch Simon Bridges after opinion polls predicted he was headed for a wipeout at...
SYDNEY: Australian police have seized about 2kg of crystal meth or ‘ice’, that drug smugglers had hidden in boxes of face masks and hand sanitiser bottles sent from Canada.An inspection of two boxes that had arrived at a Sydney gateway facility from Canada in early...
BANGKOK: Thailand expects to have a vaccine for the novel coronavirus ready next year, a senior official said on Wednesday, after finding positive trial results in mice.Thailand will begin testing the mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccine on monkeys next week after successful trials on mice, said...
BEIJING: Beijing will “never tolerate” Taiwan’s separation from China, a spokesman at the mainland’s top Taiwan body said Wednesday, after President Tsai Ing-wen was inaugurated for a second term.China considers the democratic, self-governing island as part of its territory, and has repeatedly advocated for its...
SINGAPORE: A man has been sentenced to death in Singapore via a Zoom video-call for his role in a drug deal, the city-state’s first case where capital punishment has been delivered remotely.Punithan Genasan, a 37-year-old Malaysian, received the sentence for his role in a 2011...
PATHUM THANI: Emergency workers usually busy attending accidents on Thailand’s roads mill around ambulances parked at a service station – fewer crashes and crimes a welcome outcome for several Asian countries during coronavirus lockdowns.As Asia starts to assess the damage caused by the pandemic, some...
CHICAGO: A Missouri man convicted of murdering an elderly woman three decades ago was put to death in Missouri on Tuesday, marking the first execution in the US since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.Walter Barton, 64, was pronounced dead at 6.10pm local time at...
TAIPEI: Taiwan wants dialogue with China but cannot accept its proposal for “one country, two systems”, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Wednesday, calling for both sides to find a way to coexist.In a speech after being sworn in for her second and final term in...
TOKYO: Japan’s defence ministry is investigating a possible leak of details of a new state-of-the-art missile in a large-scale cyberattack on Mitsubishi Electric Corp, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Wednesday.The ministry suspects hackers stole performance requirements that were sent to several defence-industry companies as...
LOS ANGELES: The only two hospitals in Southern California’s rural Imperial County were forced to close their doors to new coronavirus patients on Tuesday, after admitting scores believed stricken with the virus from across the border in Mexico, officials said.The surge in patients consisted of...