Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Coronavirus live updates: Trump puts Mike Pence in charge of US response, says risk to Americans ‘very low’

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Saudi Arabia bans religious tourists from entering country as WHO says virus now spreading faster outside China than in it. Follow latest news

Fiji has extended its travel ban due to coronavirus fears. Travellers who have been in Italy, Iran and the South Korean cities of Daegu and Cheongdo will not be permitted to enter Fiji. Visitors who had been in mainland China in the last 14 days have also been forbidden entry into the Pacific nation.

There are no suspected or confirmed cases of coronavirus in Fiji, but Pacific nations are fearful of how their health systems will cope were the virus to reach their shores.

Ian Thorpe, the Australian Olympic swimming legend, says athletes must consider their own health before attending the Tokyo Games this year.

Thorpe, whose five Olympic golds make him the most successful Australian Olympian all time, spoke out as concerns mounted about whether the Games in July and August will go ahead because of the coronavirus outbreak.

I think the decision should come down to each individual athlete. But whether or not they want to compete, that they should take their health into consideration first.

Related: Athletes must consider their own health before travelling to Olympics, says Ian Thorpe

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Lie-flat beds in economy class: Air New Zealand unveils bunks for budget travellers

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Airline which operates some of world’s longest flights is considering ‘Skynest’ sleep pods with pillows, sheets and blankets

Air New Zealand has announced it could have flat beds in economy for some of its long-haul flights, but it will be more than a year before customers could get the chance to sleep in one of the new pod beds.

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Why are New Zealanders still not allowed to know the identity of Grace Millane’s killer? | Andrew Geddis

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We have had a history of suppressing information about those facing trial, but it is unclear if it can survive in the era of Facebook, Google and Instagram

British backpacker Grace Millane’s murderer was last week sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

However, the killer’s identity has not been published in New Zealand. When convicting Millane’s killer, Justice Simon Moore extended an existing suppression order that not only prohibits his naming, but also the reasons for making it.

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Coronavirus: fourth Diamond Princess passenger dies as Japan closes some schools – live news

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Concerns mount that the spread of Covid-19 cannot be stopped as stock markets fall amid investor fears. Follow latest news

Italy may need to call on the European Union to offer leeway on its budget targets as it struggles with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, a senior official said.

Deputy economy minister, Laura Castelli, made the comments a day after prime minister Giuseppe Conte warned that the fallout from the outbreak, which has concentrated in the economic powerhouses of northern Italy, would be “very strong”.

If you want to share any thoughts or news tips with me about the coronavirus then please email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com or tweet me @sloumarsh. My direct messages are open. Thanks

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Gui Minhai, detained Hong Kong bookseller, jailed for 10 years in China

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Swedish citizen who disappeared in 2015 is sentenced in Ningbo for ‘providing intelligence’ overseas

A Chinese court has sentenced Swedish bookseller Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison for “providing intelligence” overseas, in a case that has highlighted China’s far-reaching crackdown on critics.

A court in Ningbo, an eastern port city, said on Tuesday that Gui had been found guilty and would be stripped of political rights for five years in addition to his prison term. The brief statement said Gui had pled guilty and would not be appealing against his case.

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Malaysia’s political turmoil: everything you need to know

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Prime minister Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation sets rival parties against each other and could result in a snap election

The country’s ruling alliance collapsed on Monday after the prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, the world’s oldest leader, shocked the nation by announcing that he would be stepping down. The king accepted his resignation but asked for him to stay on as interim leader. The country is now in limbo as rival parties rush to strike deals and form a government.

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Coronavirus: South Korea to test 200,000 sect members as pandemic fears hit markets

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Nation brings in ‘maximum measures’ to contain outbreak at secretive church

South Korea has stepped up its “maximum measures” to contain the coronavirus with plans to test around 200,000 members of a secretive church believed to be at the centre of the country’s outbreak.

Along with an emergency budget and a crackdown on the hoarding of face masks, the government in Seoul will test members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus after its founder agreed to provide authorities with the names of all its members in the country.

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Thai geologist shot dead in second mining-related killing in Bougainville

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Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot as he conducted exploration activities for a new gold mine in the region

A Thai geologist working at a new gold mine in Bougainville has been shot dead in the second killing at a mining project in the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea in recent months.

Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot by a high-powered weapon on Monday in the Kokoda constituency of south Bougainville.

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Coronavirus closures reveal vast scale of China’s secretive wildlife farm industry

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Peacocks, porcupines and pangolins among species bred on 20,000 farms closed in wake of virus

Nearly 20,000 wildlife farmsraising species including peacocks, civet cats, porcupines, ostriches, wild geese and boar have been shut down across China in the wake of the coronavirus, in a move that has exposed the hitherto unknown size of the industry.

Until a few weeks ago wildlife farming was still being promoted by government agencies as an easy way for rural Chinese people to get rich.

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Coronavirus: WHO plays down pandemic fears after sixth person dies in Italy – live updates

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Latest updates amid alarm over sudden rise in cases in Italy and Iran

The World Health Organization has played down fears of a coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world, despite sudden serious outbreaks in Italy and Iran, but some experts said they believed it was now inevitable.

“Using the word pandemic now does not fit the facts, but it may certainly cause fear,” said the WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a briefing.

Related: Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic 'in all but name', says expert

Austria has said it will stop people suspected of carrying the coronavirus from crossing its border, after parts of northern Italy were put into lockdown over the weekend following a surge in cases.

The Austrian government released a travel warning for affected areas of Lombardy and Veneto, following a meeting of the government’s coronavirus taskforce that included the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz.

Related: Austria to close border for those suspected of carrying coronavirus

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Aerial footage shows huge queues for masks in South Korea amid coronavirus panic – video

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A queue of hundreds of people wanting to buy face masks from a supermarket stretched round several streets in Daegu on Monday.

Customers queued outside one of Daegu's E-mart stores, which began to sell face masks at half price in the city, according to local media reports. South Korea has raised its infectious disease alert level to its highest for the first time since 2009 

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Deportees and a climate crisis: what’s on the agenda as Ardern meets Morrison

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Thorny issues await the two prime ministers when they meet in Australia this week

As gang violence in New Zealand soars – partly fuelled by Australian deportees, police say – prime minister Jacinda Ardern is heading to Sydney for her annual bilateral with Scott Morrison.

The issue of New Zealanders with only distant links to their home country being summarily shipped back to Aotearoa will again be on the agenda, but experts say it is unlikely Ardern will take as tough a stance as last year, when she said the issue was having a “corrosive” affect on trans-Tasman relations.

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Coronavirus outbreak: four cruise ship passengers test positive in UK – live news

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Turkey and Pakistan close borders with Iran after eight deaths, while in northern Italy towns are on lockdown after jump in cases

Here’s Angela Giuffrida, Patrick Wintour and Sam Jones’s roundup of today’s coronavirus developments across the globe.

Four of the 32 British and Irish Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers taken to Arrowe Park, Merseyside on Saturday have tested positive for coronavirus strain Covid-19, the chief medical officer for England has said.

Prof Chris Whitty said: “Four further patients in England have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 13.

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South Korea screens thousands of religious sect members for coronavirus

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Country confirms more than 430 cases as WHO head voices concern over fifth death in Iran

Thousands of members of a secretive religious sect in South Korea are being screened for the new coronavirus after more than 430 cases were confirmed in the country by officials, one of several fresh clusters of the disease globally.

More than 78,000 people around the world have been infected by the Covid-19 virus, with most cases in mainland China, though clusters that have unclear origins have emerged in Singapore, Iran and South Korea.

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Minamata review – Johnny Depp attempts redemption in heartfelt look at disaster that struck Japanese town

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Depp plays real-life US photojournalist W Eugene Smith who travels to cover the story of mercury poisoning that caused horrendous disfigurements

Minamata is not a masterpiece and there are one or two cliches here about western saviours and boozy, difficult, passionate journalists who occupy the perennial Venn diagram overlap between integrity and alcoholism. This movie’s producer-star Johnny Depp has form on this score, with his starstruck impersonation of Hunter Thompson. And once again, he has chosen a role in which he wears a hat indoors. But Minamata is a forthright, heartfelt movie, an old-fashioned “issue picture” with a worthwhile story to tell about how communities can stand up to overweening corporations and how journalists dedicated to truthful news can help them.

Depp plays real-life US photojournalist W Eugene Smith whose glory days were in the second world war and the decades following, working for Life magazine in that now-forgotten era when analogue cameras were incapable of lying and magazines with compelling photos could command newsstand sales.

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‘It’s post-apocalyptic’: how coronavirus has altered day-to-day life

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From Wuhan to the north of England, people have been affected by the outbreak in different ways

The coronavirus is a public health emergency, but its threat is not only medical. Millions of lives have been altered by the outbreak, from those in self-isolation in China to Chinese nationals experiencing racism abroad. We talk to those affected in different ways, from Wuhan to the north of England.

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‘You’ve ripped a hole in my heart’: Grace Millane’s mother speaks to court – video

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The mother of the murdered British backpacker says she is tormented over 'the terror and pain she must have experienced at your hands'. Gillian Millane was speaking to a court via video link. Her daughter was killed in New Zealand in 2018. 

A 28-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for Millane’s murder.

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Grace Millane’s family will ‘forever have a life sentence’, say police – video

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The New Zealand man found guilty of murdering the British backpacker Grace Millane has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Speaking outside the high court in Auckland after the sentencing, DI Scott Beard said the killer's sentencing ended a 'long and difficult period' for the Millane family, but that they were the ones who had been given the life sentence.

Millane, 22, from Essex, arrived in New Zealand in November 2018 as part of a round-the-world trip. She died by manual strangulation on 2 December during sex in the man’s hotel room in central Auckland. The pair had met on the dating app Tinder.

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Coronavirus: China prison reports 200 cases, as virus spreads in South Korea – live updates

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Justice chief sacked in Shandong province with prison guard reported to be source of outbreak, as South Korea adds 52 new cases. Follow latest news

China’s Global Television Network is reporting that 200 prisoners in a facility in the eastern province of Shandong are infected with Covid-19. The sources of the infection is reported to be an affected prison guard.

These prison cases may partly explain the spike in new cases today to 889, up from 394 reported on Thursday.

East China's Shandong Province reported 200 #COVID19 cases from the Rencheng Prison on Thu., bringing the total to 207 in the facility

- Virus brought in by affected prison guard
- Treatments underway
- Provincial justice chief among eight officials removed from office pic.twitter.com/yyMWa21a86

Car sales plummeted in China in February, state media is reporting.

Retail of domestic passenger #vehicles in China plummeted 92% y-o-y in the first half of Feb, a record decline, due to #COVID19: industrial report pic.twitter.com/SkLUjtOdqA

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Essex lorry deaths: Vietnam police charge seven over role in trafficking

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Police say one migrant was charged $22,000 before being taken to China, France and then the UK

Police in Vietnam have charged seven people in connection with the deaths of 39 migrants whose bodies were discovered in the back of a lorry in the UK in 2019, authorities said late on Thursday.

The victims, who included two 15-year-old boys, were mostly from two provinces in north-central Vietnam, where poor job prospects, encouragement by authorities, smuggling gangs and environmental issues have fuelled migration.

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