Regional news from Southeast Asia in English — ASEAN politics, economy and diplomacy, covered by Thai PBS World.
JAKARTA (Reuters) – A 6.2-magnitude earthquake on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island killed at least seven people, injured hundreds and damaged many buildings on Friday, the country’s disaster mitigation agency said, as panicked residents fled to safer areas. The epicentre of the quake was six kilometres (3.73 miles) northeast of Majene city at a depth of 10
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia launched one of the world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccination campaigns on Wednesday with President Joko Widodo getting the first shot of a Chinese vaccine as his country fights one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Asia. The drive aims to inoculate 181.5 million people, with the first to be vaccinated receiving the
YANGON—The Myanmar government has begun taking steps to tackle what are seen as irregularities surrounding a controversial China-backed city development project in a Karen-controlled area opposite Mae Sot District of Thailand’s Tak Province, The Irrawaddy news website reported. It quoted government spokesman U Zaw Htay as saying at a news briefing in Naypyitaw over the
Malaysia’s king declared a nationwide state of emergency on Tuesday to curb the spread of COVID-19, a move that bolsters Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s precarious hold on power and forestalls any attempt by opponents to force an early election. In a televised address on Tuesday, Muhyiddin said the parliament will be suspended for a stipulated
HANOI, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Vietnam will limit flights bringing citizens home from now until the end of the Lunar New Year in mid-February, when big gatherings indoors are expected, to reduce coronavirus risks, the country’s prime minister said. With a new COVID-19 variant spreading around the globe and the upcoming Lunar New Year, the
JAKARTA (Reuters) – A Sriwijaya Air plane with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off from Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province, local media reported. Reliable tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed that Flight SJ182 “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude
A Singaporean woman was sentenced to five months in prison on Friday for hiding her meetings with a male friend from coronavirus contact tracers as she did not want her family to think she was having an affair. Oh Bee Hiok, 65, met a close friend, 72-year-old Lim Kiang Hong, five times in the weeks
At least six people have died and nearly 50,000 evacuated in Malaysia after monsoon rains pounded the country’s east coast, authorities said Friday, causing what residents described as the worst flooding in half a century. Authorities have stepped up rescue operations after locals complained they had to fend for themselves earlier this week. Heavy rains continued to
Nearly 100 Rohingya smuggled from Myanmar’s conflict-scarred Rakhine state were arrested in a raid in Yangon, police announced Thursday, with authorities saying they had been headed to Malaysia as part of a trafficking network. The plight of the Rohingya captured international headlines in 2017 after a military crackdown in western Rakhine state sent almost 750,000 fleeing across the border
Indonesia’s men’s doubles top seeds have been forced to pull out of next week’s Thailand Open badminton after one of them, Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, tested positive for coronavirus, the Badminton World Federation said. The withdrawal of Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, affectionately known as the “Minions”, is the latest loss for badminton’s restart tournament, which is already
Singapore has admitted data collected for contact-tracing can be accessed by police despite earlier assurances it would only be used to fight the coronavirus, sparking privacy concerns Tuesday about the scheme. The city-state has a programme called “TraceTogether” for tracking close contacts of Covid-19 patients, that works via both a phone app and a dongle.
Indonesia‘s mass vaccination programme is set to start next week, pending authorisation from the country’s food and drug agency (BPOM), as about 700,000 doses of vaccines have already been widely distributed. Currently battling one of Asia’s most stubborn coronavirus epidemics, Indonesia has secured more than 329 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, most notably from Pfizer and its
