Asia

India reported a record 26,506 new coronavirus cases on Friday as authorities re-imposed lockdowns in its most populous state and in an industrial hub, home to automakers and drug factories. According to media reports, the new cases pushed India’s tally to nearly 800,000 cases, the world’s third-biggest outbreak, behind only …

The United States has approved the possible sale of 105 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets to Japan worth approximately $23 billion. The approval by the US State Department came on Thursday after Japan had requested 63 F-35A and 42 F-35B aircraft, 110 Pratt and Whitney F135 engines, as well as …

India has decided to receive a cargo of Venezuelan crude under a swap deal in the face of a US sanctions regime which has put the Latin American country in throes of a fuel crisis. Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced its plan to load its first cargo of Venezuelan …

The United States has approved a request from Taiwan to modernize the self-ruled island’s Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to counter what it claims as “regional threats”, amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington. According to reports, the US State Department said on Friday that Taiwan had requested to buy an …

The Chinese response came after the US announced visa bans and an assets freeze on three officials, including Chen Quanquo, the Chinese Communist Party chief in Xinjiang, and architect of Beijing’s hardline policies against restive minorities. “The US actions seriously interfere in China’s internal affairs, seriously violate the basic norms …

One of South Korea’s most prominent elected officials and longtime mayor of the capital, Seoul, was found dead on Friday after his daughter reported him missing amid a criminal investigation and media reports of alleged sexual harassment. Officers using drones and sniffer dogs found Mayor Park Won-soon’s body at Mt …

China’s embassy in Kazakhstan has warned its citizens to take precautions against an outbreak of pneumonia in the country that it says is more lethal than COVID-19. It said in a statement on its official WeChat account late on Thursday that there had been a “significant increase” in cases in …

Afghanistan is to release more Taliban prisoners in the hope of getting peace talks going, a government spokesman said on Thursday, after the insurgent group provided the government with a revised list of several hundred of their detainees. Disagreement over about 600 prisoners from a total of 5,000 the Taliban …

Vikas Dubey, a notorious gangster behind a string of murders, kidnappings, and extortions, was arrested by Madhya Pradesh Police after massacring 8 cops in an ambush and spending days on the run. Dubey was apprehended after visiting a temple in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. A shopkeeper happened to recognize the …

A senior Chinese arms control official has offered to enter U.S.-Russia nuclear weapons treaty talks if Washington, D.C., agrees to nuclear parity with Beijing, and offers the official acknowledged will never be accepted. Fu Cong, director-general of the Department of Arms Control at China’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that Beijing …

Living in a country like India where there is such a stark divide between those who can afford private healthcare and those who cannot, Lakhjeet Singh’s family believed they had the means to access the best treatment during the coronavirus pandemic. So when the 68-year-old Delhi business owner started to …

China says the United States holds the key to breaking the stalemate in negotiations with North Korea, amid renewed tensions on the Korean Peninsula due to stalled demilitarization talks. “North Korea and the US are major conflicting parties in regards to the Korean Peninsula issue. The US holds the key …

A landslide buried nine people on Wednesday in China’s Hubei province, the People’s Daily newspaper reported, after some of the heaviest rain in decades brought floods that have killed more than 100 people. The landslide occurred in Huangmei County in the early hours and efforts were being made to rescue …

Authorities in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia have closed several tourist spots after a case of bubonic plague was confirmed this week. The case was discovered in Bayannur, located northwest of the capital Beijing. Five nearby grassland scenic points have now been closed, with visitors “strictly prohibited from entering …

A Taliban suicide bomber detonated an explosive-packed military vehicle on the approach to the provincial governor’s residence and police headquarters in the Afghan province of Kandahar on Wednesday, killing at least three people, authorities said. Bloodshed is escalating anew in Afghanistan even as the United States tries to broker a …

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has defended the new national security law enacted in the semi-autonomous Chinese city last week, dismissing exaggerated accounts of its implications for the city. Speaking at a regular weekly press conference on Tuesday, Lam rejected allegations that the law would stifle freedoms in Hong …

North Korea has stressed that it has no intention of holding new negotiations with the United States, following a call by South Korea for Pyongyang and Washington to hold a new summit. According to reports, Kwon Jong-gun, the director general for US affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, said …

China is forging ahead in the race to develop a vaccine to help control the COVID-19 pandemic, with Sinovac Biotech’s (SVA.O) experimental vaccine set to become the country’s second and the world’s third to enter final stage testing later this month. While a laggard in the global vaccine industry, China, …

Indonesia’s government and House of Representatives have denounced the Israeli regime’s plan to annex Palestinian territories. “President Joko Widodo fully supports our firm stance against the Deal of the Century, including the annexation of the West Bank by Israel,” Mardani Ali Sera, Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Parliamentary Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation …

At least 21 people have died and 15 have been left seriously injured after a bus carrying high school students veered off a road, broke through a guardrail, and sank into a reservoir in southwest China. The horrific incident happened at approximately noon local time in Anshun, in southwest China’s …