Month: January 2020

Singapore will close its borders to all new visitors from mainland China, including foreigners who have been there within the past 14 days, becoming the first Southeast Asian country to do so in a bid to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus.The island nation has China as one of its biggest trading partners and is a popular destination for Chinese tourists. Figures from the Singapore Tourism Board showed that 248,000 travellers from the mainland entered Singapore last November, while 3.42…

At least 18 economies have restricted entry to travellers from China while more than 20 airlines are suspending or reducing flights to the country as coronavirus infections continue to soar, with almost 10,000 confirmed cases and 213 deaths as of Friday afternoon.Twenty-three countries and territories besides mainland China have reported cases of the deadly virus since it was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan last month, with cases of human-to-human transmission confirmed in the…

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared a global public health emergency over the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus on Thursday, citing the potential of the virus to spread to countries not prepared to deal with the contagion.Declaring the public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasised multiple times during a press conference in Geneva that the move was not “a vote of no confidence” in China’s ability to control the…

As cases of the novel coronavirus spread across the globe, so has interest in two unusual search terms – “corona beer virus” and “beer virus”.From the United States to Cambodia, and even in Israel, Ireland and Singapore, internet users seem to be confusing the Mexican lager Corona for the virus.According to Google Trends, the first searches for “corona beer virus” started on January 9, the day the World Health Organisation (WHO) said a string of pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, the capital of…

A tutor, two pharmacy assistants and a university student were arrested in Malaysia on Wednesday for spreading fake news about the coronavirus.This comes after a 34-year-old man was detained in Bangi on Tuesday for spreading false information about the influenza-type virus that originated in Wuhan in China and has infected more than 6,000 people worldwide, mostly in China.The police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission made the four arrests on Wednesday in separate…

Indonesia is “re-evaluating” its policy of visa-free travel for Chinese tourists as concerns grow over the Wuhan coronavirus.As of Wednesday evening, no cases of infection had been reported in Indonesia, but the spread of the virus beyond China – where it has claimed at least 132 lives – has led to growing calls for the government to step up its defences.The news came as the country’s air force announced it had three planes on standby to evacuate 93 Indonesians from Wuhan, the Chinese city at…

Wearing dark glasses, a hood and a mask, the 15-year-old Filipino girl explained to the Philippine senate committee that she had been recruited as a masseuse.It was not until later she found she would be prostituted out as one of nine females under the control of a Chinese boss who sold her body nearly exclusively to Chinese clients in Philippine hotels. Her boss would keep half her earnings, which began at 6,000 pesos per client and increased if she stayed overnight. And “Carina”, as she was…

The masked woman nervously approaches her target, shuffles into position and then unleashes a flurry of lashes – proving herself as the newest member of the first female whipping squad in Indonesia’s Aceh province.The new recruit initially needed some coaxing to punish the offender – an unmarried woman caught in a hotel room with a man.Such behaviour constitutes a morality crime in Aceh, the only region in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation that imposes Islamic law – known as sharia…

Chef Kei Kobayashi became the first Japanese chef ever to win the maximum three Michelin stars in France on Monday.The 42-year-old, who was born in Nagano, was the biggest winner on a night when Japanese cooks triumphed in the backyard of French haute cuisine.Kazuyuki Tanaka won two stars for Racine, his French restaurant in the northeastern city of Reims, as did Yasunari Okazaki for his crossover Franco-Japanese cuisine at L’Abysee au Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris.Kobayashi – a striking figure…

Singapore confirmed its fifth case of the coronavirus on Monday.The patient is a 56-year-old female Chinese national from Wuhan who arrived in Singapore with her family on January 18, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.The woman has been warded in an isolation room at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID). She is in a stable condition.The health ministry said the patient was asymptomatic during her flight to Singapore but developed symptoms several days later, on January 24…