Category Archives: Asia Pacific

China locks down city of 9 million and reports 4,000 cases as Omicron tests zero-Covid strategy

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City of Shenyang has barred residents from leaving without a 48-hour negative test result and put all housing compounds under ‘closed management’

China has locked down an industrial city of 9 million people overnight and reported more than 4,000 virus cases, as the nation’s “zero-Covid” strategy is confronted by an Omicron wave.

Health authorities reported 4,770 new infections across the country on Tuesday, the bulk in the north-eastern province of Jilin, as the city of Shenyang in neighbouring Liaoning province was ordered to lock down late Monday.

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China Eastern Airlines crash: families await grim news as rescuers sift through wreckage

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State media report no survivors after a Boeing 737-800 flight crashed into mountainous terrain with 132 on board

About an hour into its journey from Kunming to Gaungzhou, flight MU5735 fell out of the air. After cruising at an altitude of 29,100ft, it suddenly dropped to about 7,000ft where it briefly ascended before diving again and crashing into remote bamboo forest in the mountains near Wuzhou. The fall appears to have taken around two minutes, according to flight tracking data.

“The plane did not smoke during the fall,” a witness told the Beijing Youth Daily. “The fire started after it fell into the mountain, followed by a lot of smoke.”

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Chinese plane with 132 people onboard crashes in Guangxi province

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State media reports that China Eastern 737 went down near city of Wuzhou, sparking mountainside fire

A passenger plane carrying 132 people has crashed in southern China, with no survivors announced so far, Chinese authorities have reported.

The China Eastern Airlines plane departed Kunming at 1pm, on route to Guangzhou. At about 2.20pm, according to data from Flightradar24, the plane, a Boeing 737, plummeted more than 20,000 feet in just over a minute. It then seems to have regained altitude momentarily, before dropping rapidly again. The plane crashed near the city of Wuzhou in Teng County, Guangxi province.

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Six people dead and three missing after Indonesian fishing boat capsizes off Australian coast

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Three crew members rescued by Singapore-flagged bulk carrier with one now in a critical condition in Broome hospital

Six people are dead and another three are believed to have drowned after an Indonesian fishing boat capsized off the north-west coast of Western Australia.

There were 12 people aboard when the boat, named Kuda Laut which translates to Horse Sea, capsized on Sunday evening about 180km west of Ashmore Reef.

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Hong Kong eases travel rules in apparent shift from zero-Covid policy

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Ban on flights from nine countries lifted for fully vaccinated residents and quarantine reduced to seven days

Hong Kong will lift a ban on flights from nine countries and reduce hotel quarantine alongside a “roadmap” towards eased restrictions that suggest a departure from the territory’s zero-Covid policy, its leader has announced.

From 1 April, fully vaccinated Hong Kong residents who have received a negative PCR test will be allowed to enter on flights from the UK, Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and the US. Arrivals have to undergo seven days’ hotel quarantine, down from 14 previously.

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Four dead, one missing after New Zealand fishing boat sinks in bad weather

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Rescue operation off North Island’s North Cape hampered by thunderstorms, swells and torrential downpours

A fishing trip in New Zealand has ended in tragedy, with four people dead and one passenger still missing after their boat sank during wild weather.

The rescue operation began on Sunday evening after a charter fishing vessel activated an emergency beacon off the North Island’s North Cape. A helicopter was first on scene at the remote location, arriving at about 11.40pm but by 2.30am the boat had sunk.

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China has fully militarized three islands in South China Sea, US admiral says

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John C Aquilino says Beijing is flexing its military muscle by arming isles with fighter jets, anti-ship systems and other military facilities

China has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the disputed South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that threatens all nations operating nearby, a top US military commander said Sunday.

US Indo-Pacific commander Admiral John C Aquilino said the hostile actions were in stark contrast to the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s past assurances that Beijing would not transform the artificial islands in contested waters into military bases. The efforts were part of China’s flexing its military muscle, he said.

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With 37 million in lockdown and Covid plans under fire, Chinese ask: what comes next?

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Elderly residents are wary of the jab even as Omicron spreads, and critics say zero-Covid policy is not sustainable

When nearby neighbourhoods went into lockdown, Liu Li started stocking up. The 42-year-old Chinese magazine worker bought vegetables, fruit, medicine and other supplies, adding to stores of basics she had maintained since the pandemic began. Last Sunday a resident in the community where Liu lives with her mother, in Changchun city, Jilin, tested positive. Everyone was ordered inside.

The fresh lockdown has, so far, been OK. “I live a normal life,” she says. “I work when there are tasks for me. If there aren’t any, I talk to my mother, watch TV, or play with my cat.”

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China reports first coronavirus deaths in over a year amid omicron surge

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Two deaths reported on Saturday, the first since January 2021, as China continues to pursue ‘zero-Covid’ strategy

China’s national health authorities reported two Coronavirus deaths on Saturday, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January last year, as the country battles an omicron-driven surge.

The deaths, both in north-eastern Jilin province, bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638.

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China’s decisive turning point: will it side with Russia and divide the world?

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Analysis: the world faces the possibility of a dramatic shift in the geopolitical balance of power as Beijing mulls support for Russia over the Ukraine war

Joe Biden is due to make a phone call to Xi Jinping on Friday at a potential tipping point in China’s role in the world as it decides how far to go in backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

While China has abstained on United Nations security council resolutions on the invasion, it has sided with Moscow rhetorically, echoing Russian talking points blaming Nato, and recycling conspiracy theories, and the Biden administration believes it has already decided to bail Russia out economically.

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Papua New Guinean MP charged with murder over shooting death in restaurant

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First-term government MP Lohia Boe Samuel has been charged with murder over the death of Robert Jerry last week

A Papua New Guinean MP has been charged with murder, after the shooting death of a man at a restaurant in the capital of Port Moresby last week.

Police will allege that Lohia Boe Samuel, the MP for Moresby North-West, was having dinner with Robert Jerry and another man at Fushion 2 restaurant on Friday 11 March when a firearm was discharged, killing Jerry.

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Philippines considers four-day working week to combat rising costs

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Economist calls for compressed working hours with 10-hour days in response to higher fuel prices

The Philippines is considering a four-day working week to conserve energy, as the cost of fuel continues to rise globally, driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Officials are searching for ways to soften the impact of dramatic price increases, which have prompted calls for a rise in the minimum wage and greater assistance for drivers.

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China property shares soar on Beijing stimulus, despite continued debt crisis

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Plans to shore up real estate and tech sectors welcomed by investors, but downgrade of third-biggest developer Sunac shows problems persist

Chinese property shares have soared for a second day thanks to a decision by Beijing’s leadership to throw the country’s struggling real estate sector a lifeline amid growing pressures at home and abroad.

Despite a downgrade for China’s third-biggest property developer Sunac on Thursday, stocks in the sector lifted again in Hong Kong and the mainland thanks to an announcement by vice premier Liu He, China’s economic tsar, on Wednesday that the government needed to reduce risks in the industry.

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South Korea reports record Covid deaths as daily cases surge past 600,000

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Despite record infections and fatalities, public opinion appears to support plans to ease Covid curbs in the coming days

South Korea reported record daily Covid infections and record deaths caused by the virus, as the country which once took an aggressive anti-pandemic approach is set to end Covid restrictions.

On Thursday, authorities said 621,328 new daily cases of the virus were recorded, and 429 deaths.

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Malaysian government’s ‘gay conversion’ app pulled by Google Play

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App claimed that it could help LGBT+ people ‘return to nature’ but the tech company has now made it unavailable for downloads

An app produced by the Malaysian government that promised to help the LGBTI community “return to nature” has been removed from the Google Play store, after it was found to be in breach of the platform’s guidelines.

The app was first released in July 2016, but attracted fresh attention after it was shared on Twitter by the Malaysian government’s Islamic development department. It claimed the app would enable LGBTI people to return to a state of nature or purity, and that it included an e-book detailing the experience of a gay man who “abandoned homosexual behaviour” during Ramadan.

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Powerful Japan earthquake strikes off coast of Fukushima, killing four

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Tsunami warning cancelled after quake cut power to 2m homes and damaged some buildings

A powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in north-east Japan on Wednesday evening, leaving four dead, and plunging more than 2m homes in the Tokyo area into darkness.

The region was devastated by a deadly 9.0 quake and tsunami 11 years ago that also triggered nuclear plant meltdowns, spewing massive radiation that still makes some parts uninhabitable.

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Prosecutors accuse China of campaign to spy on and harass dissidents in US

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Prosecutors have launched a series of criminal cases including one involving an alleged attempt to smear a congressional candidate

US prosecutors have accused Chinese government agents of trying to spy on and intimidate dissidents living in the United States, including a congressional candidate, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in New York.

The US justice department convened a Washington news conference to detail the accusations in a series of criminal cases.

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‘An abomination’: Morrison signals sanctions against China if it helps arm Russia

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PM says Australia ‘will move in lockstep’ with allies on sanctioning the country’s largest trading partner

Scott Morrison has left the door open to introducing sanctions against China, Australia’s largest trading partner, if Chinese president Xi Jinping’s regime were to provide military equipment to Russia.

The prime minister said his government would move in lockstep with its allies and partners in response to what he called Beijing’s “chilling silence” on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said any move by China to arm Russia would be “an abomination”.

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Giant New Zealand potato is not in fact a potato, Guinness World Records rules

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Couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash

When is a potato not a potato? When it’s a tuber of a gourd, according to Guinness World Records.

A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash after Guinness wrote to say that scientific testing had found it wasn’t, in fact, a potato after all.

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North Korea suspected missile fails after launch, says South Korea

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North Korea recently conducted its ninth weapons test of 2022 but the latest appears to have misfired

North Korea fired an “unknown projectile” on Wednesday that appeared to fail immediately after launch, South Korea’s military said after Japanese media reported a suspected missile launch.

The suspected missile was fired from an airfield outside the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, South Korea’s defence ministry said.

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