Asian Legal Review

Dozens of terrified shoppers were evacuated from a Thai shopping centre early on Sunday as armed police said they had “taken control” of the ground floor of the complex from a gunman who killed at least 20 people.But authorities did not give any firm details on the whereabouts of the attacker – a junior army officer named Sergeant-Major Jakrapanth Thomma.There were fears the shooter could try to hide among the panicked crowds.Police from the Crime Supression Division urged fleeing shoppers to …

The government has come out to assure Singaporeans that there is an ample supply of essentials, after the raising of the risk assessment level of the novel coronavirus situation in the city state sparked panic buying at supermarkets.Photos of long queues and empty shelves at supermarkets have been circulating on social media after Singapore raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon) alert level to Orange on Friday afternoon. This refers to a situation in which a virus is…

Manila universities ordering Chinese students to quarantine themselves; crematoriums refusing to accept the body of a Chinese coronavirus victim; taxi drivers reportedly turning down passengers who look Chinese. Although there are just three confirmed cases in the Philippines, coronavirus fears are already threatening to become what some scholars call an “epidemic of racism”.“When there are gaps in scientific knowledge – cliché and prejudice fill the void,” noted a blog post by scholars…

The World Health Organisation on Thursday cautioned against reading too much into data showing a dip in daily new coronavirus infections in China after the figure had surged for weeks.Michael Ryan, the head of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, said it was “too early to make predictions” on whether the outbreak had peaked, based on just one data point.“We are still in the middle of an intense outbreak and we need to be very careful about making any predictions,” Ryan told a daily briefing…

Singapore on Thursday confirmed two new cases of the coronavirus, including a 41-year-old man with no recent travel history to mainland China and no identifiable link to the city state’s other infections.The new cases brought Singapore’s total infections to 30 and the health ministry also confirmed the condition of two patients previously diagnosed had deteriorated.One patient is now in critical condition in intensive care and another requires additional oxygen support, the ministry said…

Kim Jong-un has spent much of his time as North Korea’s leader developing bigger and more advanced nuclear weapons. This year, he may try to make them harder to find by putting them under the sea.Recent North Korean reports touting a new submarine and its test of a ballistic missile designed to be launched from one have fuelled speculation that a sub may be the “new strategic weapon” Kim promised to unveil this year. While such a vessel would probably be noisy and unable to stray far from the…

Singapore on Wednesday confirmed four new cases of the novel coronavirus, including a six-month-old boy who is the youngest person in the city state to have been diagnosed with the disease.In a statement, Singapore’s ministry of health confirmed three of the new cases were linked to a “cluster of local transmission” identified on Tuesday.The four new cases bring Singapore’s total number of cases to 28. All four of the people diagnosed were being held in isolation.Two of the new cases are father…

A Chinese girl has recovered from the new coronavirus infection in Malaysia and is allowed to return home, a Malaysian health official said in a statement late on Tuesday.The four-year-old became the first of 10 patients in Malaysia, including nine visiting Chinese, to have recovered after contracting the virus.Health Ministry director general Noor Hisham Abdullah said detection tests were repeated twice and the results came back negative.“She is now is good health and has been allowed to…

Manufacturing and logistics players reliant on China’s giant economy are braced for an incoming shock wave from the spread of the novel coronavirus, which is set to test “just how reliant we have grown on Chinese manufacturers”.The world’s second largest economy remains on lockdown, with factories in 14 provinces covering 70 per cent of China’s gross domestic product and 80 per cent of its exports ordered not to open until Monday at the earliest.The virus has claimed over 420 lives, the vast…

Japan quarantined a cruise ship that arrived at a port in Yokohama on Monday evening after an elderly male passenger on the vessel was found infected with a new coronavirus when he disembarked in Hong Kong late last month, the health ministry said.Several dozen quarantine officers are checking the health of all 2,500 passengers and 1,000 crew members, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said.At least seven people on the ship said they felt ill, and the results of their tests will be…