Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Coronavirus live news: Angela Merkel in quarantine; Spain set to extend state of emergency

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German chancellor in self-isolation after her doctor tests positive for coronavirus; reports say 360 more people have died in Italy; first two cases in Gaza. Follow the latest updates

UK residents have been told that “essential travel” does not include visits to second homes, camp sites, caravan parks, whether for isolation purposes or holidays and that they should remain in their primary residence.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport updated its guidance to avoid non-essential travel in the UK, saying: “This guidance is for people planning to visit second homes or holiday premises during the coronavirus pandemic.

During the coronavirus pandemic, people should avoid travelling unless it is essential. This means you should avoid visiting holiday or second homes.

Find out more: https://t.co/3JrFy1IQwH
#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/EtUt5QcBzN

The Welsh government has warned that people will face a tough crackdown if they refuse to self-isolate and continue with non-essential travel during the outbreak.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said it is important members of the public follow the official advice to prevent further deaths.

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Coronavirus news: Spain death toll passes 1,300 as Singapore reports first two deaths – live updates

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Italy deaths pass 4,000; More US states, including New York, tell people to stay home; Dow Jones falls 900 points. Follow the latest.

Boris Johnson is speaking to supermarket bosses today about how to overcome the panic buying that is gripping the UK. They will also discuss efforts to keep supplies flowing.

The meetings come ahead of the government’s daily press conference, which will be hosted by the environment secretary, George Eustice, in place of Johnson.

Scotland’s chief constable, Iain Livingstone, has warned the police will enforce the ban on all pubs, clubs and restaurants staying open — a ban he said he fully supported.

In a statement, Livingstone thanked “the overwhelming majority” of people complying with the ban. “To be clear, no public houses or other entertainment venues should be opening for patrons until further notice,” he said.

We are aware of proposed legislation in relation to COVID-19 and are carefully monitoring its progress and considering what the implications for policing will be.

In the meantime, those breaking the law will be dealt with appropriately to ensure the public is kept safe from risk and harm as we continue to police the country.

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North Korea fires projectiles into sea for third time in a month

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Suspected short-range missile launches come as Pyongyang announces legislature to meet in April amid coronavirus pandemic

North Korea fired two projectiles that appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, South Korea’s military reported.

The launch on Saturday follows two earlier this month, when North Korea fired short-range missiles and multiple projectiles, according to South Korea’s military, drawing US and Chinese appeals for Pyongyang to return to talks on ending its nuclear and missile programmes.

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‘No-waste’ Japanese village is a peek into carbon-neutral future

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For 20 years Kamikatsu has led the way in the world’s second biggest producer of plastic waste

The residents of a remote village on the Japanese island of Shikoku have spent almost two decades reusing, recycling and reducing, united behind a mission to end their dependence on incinerators and landfill as the world struggles to tackle the climate emergency and the plastic waste crisis.

Although Kamikatsu, an hour’s drive from the nearest city, Tokushima, and 370 miles from Tokyo, has not managed to banish waste altogether, its heroic efforts have inspired other communities in Japan and further afield to take up the zero-waste challenge.

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Chinese inquiry exonerates coronavirus whistleblower doctor

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Report on Li Wenliang’s death says he did not disrupt public order, but fought bravely

The Chinese doctor who was reprimanded for “spreading rumours” after he sought to warn colleagues about the emergence of Covid-19 has been officially exonerated by an investigation into his death.

However the report has also been criticised for not going far enough, after it only recommended the reprimand against Dr Li Wenliang be withdrawn.

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Coronavirus: thousands who left cruise ship in Sydney told to self-isolate after three people test positive

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Authorities fear that passengers from Ruby Princess might be unaware Covid-19 cases were onboard and be ‘wandering around’ city

About 2,700 passengers who disembarked a cruise ship in Sydney have been told to self-isolate after three people who were onboard tested positive for Covid-19.

Confirming the news on Friday, the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, said the doctor onboard had conducted 13 tests on the Ruby Princess, which had completed a relatively short cruise around the Pacific to New Zealand.

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Taxi! Endangered New Zealand seabirds get a lift to safety after crash landing in fog

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Volunteer army led by a local taxi driver scours the streets in the middle of the night to save endangered birds

A taxi driver in New Zealand has swapped drunken revellers for wayward seabirds in an attempt to halt the decline of one of the nation’s endangered species.

Local cabbie Toni Painting leads a volunteer army that scours the streets of the South Island town of Kaikoura in the middle of the night in search of Hutton’s shearwater chicks that crash-land onto the road – mistaking the shiny bitumen for the sea.

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Increasingly powerful, Xi’s China thinks it no longer needs Washington – or its foreign reporters | Richard McGregor

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The ruling party and its leaders have long wanted to avoid the scrutiny of the foreign press. The expulsions show Beijing is confident in its growing might

Beijing’s decision to throw out correspondents from America’s most influential newspapers is, on one level, just part of a muscular tit-for-tat between the US and China over how to manage journalists stationed in each country.

In an announcement that caught the newspapers by surprise, the Foreign Ministry said US journalists at the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post whose press cards ran out this year would be expelled.

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Cambodia scraps plans for Mekong hydropower dams

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Campaigners welcome decision which allays fears for fragile biodiversity and communities dependent on river for livelihood

A Cambodian government decision to postpone building new hydropower dams on the Mekong river has been welcomed by campaigners, who say it will provide welcome relief to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihood depend upon its rich resources.

Cambodia announced on Wednesday that it would not build any new hydropower dams on the mainstream Mekong for the next decade, allaying fears that the river’s fragile biodiversity could be further devastated by development projects.

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This week we have brought New Zealand’s abortion laws into the 21st century | Andrew Little

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Seeking an abortion was a crime until now, but new legislation has removed the stigma and given women a choice

New Zealand’s current abortion laws are more than 40 years old and were enacted when there were more MPs in Parliament named Bill than MPs who were female. This week we brought the laws into the 21st century.

Up to now, women seeking an abortion in New Zealand were committing a crime under our main criminal statute but had a defence if they followed the requirements of the abortion legislation. These requirements included the woman being referred by their doctor to two specialists who each had to certify she faces a serious danger to her life or physical or mental health. Other conditions also applied, such as whether the pregnancy was a result of incest or the woman lacked capacity to consent. For abortions after 20 weeks, conditions were more stringent.

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China’s coronavirus lockdown strategy: brutal but effective

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The world was astonished by the Wuhan quarantine but it seems to have worked

When China announced it was shutting down Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, in a bid to prevent further spread of the disease, the world was stunned and experts sceptical.

Beijing’s decision was a vast experiment, epidemiologists warned, that might not work despite its huge human and economic cost. Quarantine had never been tried on such an enormous scale in the modern world.

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Coronavirus live news: Italy death toll rises to 3,405, overtaking China

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US says vaccine is 12 months away, Hubei reports no new cases and cases in Peru rise 61% in single day

Competition laws will be temporarily relaxed to allow supermarkets to collaborate in feeding the UK.

Retailers will be able to pool staff, share data on stock levels, and share distribution depots and delivery vans as supermarkets face intense demand, the government confirmed.

Donald Trump sowed fresh confusion about the US government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic by claiming that a therapeutic drug will be available “almost immediately” – only to be contradicted by officials.

In a rambling performance at Thursday’s White House press conference, the president asserted that chloroquine, used to combat malaria, had been approved and would be made available by prescription.

They’re doing great with the vaccines but there’s still a long process, but the therapies are something we can move on much faster potentially. And the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms – make people better.

Chloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine, this is a common malaria drug. It’s also a drug used for strong arthritis … It’s been around for a long time, so we know if things don’t go as planned it’s not going to kill anybody … It’s shown very, very encouraging early results, and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.

Pres. Trump touts chloroquine, an old malaria drug, that doctors say may help treat novel coronavirus, claims it will be available "almost immediately."

Read more about chloroquine: https://t.co/cYt0fxdlfB pic.twitter.com/9oPsMSD3HV

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Chinese film star Yunxiang Gao and producer found not guilty of raping woman in Sydney

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Actor and producer Jing Wang acquitted of sexually assaulting woman at the Shangri-La hotel in 2018

A Chinese movie star and producer have been found not guilty of raping a woman inside a Sydney hotel room, ending the near two-year legal saga.

Actor Yunxiang Gao and producer Jing Wang were on Thursday found not guilty of a raft of charges and cleared of sexually assaulting the woman inside the Shangri-La Hotel in the early hours of 27 March 2018.

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As an MP in self-isolation, I’ve seen New Zealand’s collective power to respond to a crisis | Chlöe Swarbrick

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Everything that was once an urgent priority has evaporated. What matters right now is people’s health, and their family’s futures

It’s day three of my self-isolation. I returned to Aotearoa New Zealand on Monday night from a long-planned family wedding in Australia, itself book-ended by apocalyptic circumstance. Fires and floods rolled out the red carpet, while rapid global escalation of Covid-19 brought it to a finale.

I had booked flights back directly into Wellington, our capital city, because I’d intended to return immediately to work on Tuesday morning with the sitting of Parliament. Those intentions had been wiped clear on the weekend, with calls between caucus members and staffers confirming all arrivals back into the country would be required to quarantine themselves for a fortnight. To limit further travel, it transpired I’d be locking myself into a Wellington apartment, the opposite end of the North Island from my home of Auckland.

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Ardern has shone in the coronavirus crisis but a recession could still doom her re-election chances

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Her blend of steel and kindness is praiseworthy but come voting time in September the state of the economy will be the deciding factor

In her short tenure as prime minister, Jacinda Ardern has shown herself to be extremely good in a crisis.

After taking on the leadership of the Labour party just seven weeks before the 2017 general election, Ardern has put together a disparate coalition government, had a baby while in office, dealt with the Christchurch terrorist attacks, guided the nation through a deadly volcano eruption, and now this.

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New Zealand passes landmark law to decriminalise abortion

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Campaigners hail move that will reclassify abortion as a health issue rather than a crime

New Zealand has passed a landmark bill to decriminalise abortion after decades of campaigning.

Andrew Little, the justice minister, said it was long overdue that the procedure would become classified as a health matter and not a criminal one.

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China: expulsion of US journalists was response to ‘unreasonable oppression’

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Beijing defends ban of 13 journalists, which has been criticised as irresponsible during coronavirus crisis

Beijing has defended its decision to expel journalists from three major US publications, saying it was responding to “unreasonable oppression” of Chinese journalists in the US, as a diplomatic row escalates between the two countries.

Speaking at a regular press briefing, the foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Beijing had been “compelled” to take countermeasures after Washington imposed restrictions on staff at Chinese state media outlets in the US.

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Grace Millane: man convicted of British backpacker’s murder to appeal

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Man, whose identity is suppressed in New Zealand, will appeal against both his conviction and his life sentence

The man found guilty of the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane will appeal his conviction and life sentence, lawyers said on Wednesday.

In November a jury of seven women and five men took just five hours to unanimously agree that the accused, whose name is suppressed, murdered Millane in his hotel room after the pair met on a date in Auckland’s CBD.

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Coronavirus fears and controversial passport sales: Vanuatu’s election explained

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A country with fractured and shifting political alliances, Vanuatu heads to the polls at a crucial moment in its history

In the coffee shops and kava bars of Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila, there are two subjects that dominate conversation: Covid-19 and this week’s general elections, which will be held on Thursday.

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China-US standoff escalates as Beijing expels major US media staff

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New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post journalists among staff ordered to stop reporting and leave

China will expel US reporters of three major US news outlets, in a hugely damaging attack on foreign media coverage of the country – and an escalation of the showdown over the press between Washington and Beijing.

The decision, announced just after midnight Beijing time, requires US citizens working for the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal to halt reporting and hand in their press cards within 10 days, if their credentials expire before the end of 2020.

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