South Korea is holding the biggest election since the coronavirus pandemic spread around the globe – and it might spur other world leaders with good poll numbers to follow suit.Surveys show President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party of Korea set to win elections for 300 parliament seats on Wednesday, after his government’s popularity increased following its handling of the virus in what was initially one of the world’s hardest-hit countries. New infection rates have fallen this month to their…
US returns US$300 million in stolen 1MDB funds to Malaysia
The United States has returned US$300 million to Malaysia that prosecutors say was stolen in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB corruption scandal, authorities announced on Tuesday.The money comes from assets forfeited last year by financier Jho Low in a Los Angeles federal settlement. The settlement covered assets that included a Manhattan penthouse, a Beverly Hills mansion, a Beverly Hills boutique hotel, a luxury jet and paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.1MDB whistle-blower flees…
Coronavirus: Australia investigates ‘illegal dinner party’ after spike in cases
Australian officials are investigating whether an illegal social gathering of health workers is behind a spike in coronavirus cases in the island state of Tasmania, as the government forecast national unemployment to hit 10 per cent by midyear.Tasmania Premier Pete Gutwein said on Tuesday there has been a 50 per cent spike in the state’s Covid-19 cases since Thursday, even as the rate of reported new infections continued to significantly slow across the rest of the country.Uruguay begins…
Coronavirus: Indonesia sees cases surge as death toll among doctors mounts
Covid-19 cases are surging in Indonesia because people have yet to be “disciplined and stay at home”, a senior health official says, while the death toll among medical personnel continues to rise.“[The increase in cases] is also because there is more testing as the capacity has been expanded,” said health ministry disease control and prevention director general Achmad Yurianto.Indonesia has now tested more than 25,000 people using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are considered more…
As South Koreans head for polls, Moon gains currency with coronavirus crisis handling
South Korea won global plaudits for keeping the coronavirus under control without resorting to draconian lockdowns. Now the country faces the latest test of its resolve to keep normal life going during a pandemic: holding a national election.South Koreans vote in parliamentary elections on Wednesday in a poll widely seen as a referendum on President Moon Jae-in’s relatively liberal pandemic response, which has emphasised openness and voluntary cooperation in place of more coercive measures.“The…
Coronavirus: Singapore reports 233 new cases, bringing total to 2,532
The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 233 new cases of Covid-19 infection in Singapore as of 12pm on Sunday, the second time in a week that the 200 mark was crossed.In a news release, MOH said out of the 233 new cases, 51 are linked to known clusters and 15 are linked to other cases. The total number of cases now stands at 2,532.Thirty additional cases were found to be linked to the S11 Dormitory, which now has a total of 365 confirmed cases.Seven new clusters have emerged. These are located…
In photos, North Korea’s Kim still wears no mask as coronavirus pandemic ‘threatens whole mankind’
North Korea called for tougher and more thorough countermeasures to keep citizens safe from the fast-spreading coronavirus at a meeting where leader Kim Jong-un presided, state media said on Sunday.North Korea continues testing for the virus, with more than 500 people in quarantine, but has no confirmed infections yet, a country representative of the World Health Organisation told Reuters.Officials in Pyongyang and its state media have repeatedly insisted that the North remains totally free of…
After 70 years of ties, China and Indonesia have a fruitful, complicated relationship
Freelance writer Sylvie Tanaga, 33, has been learning Mandarin since she was a little girl – but her first lessons were held secretly in a church in Bandung, as Indonesia’s second president, Suharto, had for decades banned Chinese Indonesians from publicly expressing their culture.Tanaga’s paternal grandfather and her maternal grandparents were born in China before migrating to Indonesia, which inspired the family to make sure she kept learning the language.Her fascination with China and…
Demonising China does nothing to untangle the contesting claims on South China Sea’s fish-rich waters
If they were asked which country is the biggest fish thief in the South China Sea, most casual observers would answer “China”. After all, it has been widely portrayed as the country behaving the worst in the area. A flurry of recent articles in prominent media, including The New York Times, perpetuates this perception, highlighting Chinese fishing vessels’ aggression in waters claimed by others and criticising Beijing for not preventing such “stealing”. But this perception needs to be put in…
‘Cut back on the back-patting’: Singapore’s coronavirus response loses its shine as critics speak out
Singapore, for months hailed at home and overseas as the “gold standard” for responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, on Friday moved to defuse escalating criticism over how it has handled a surge in infections within foreign worker dormitories that activists had earlier flagged as public health risks due to their cramped conditions.Also weighing heavily on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s government were signs that a sizeable number of locals were not obeying tough “circuit breaker” measures –…