#Technology

A sumo wrestler in Japan said he had “no choice” but to quit the sport after his request to skip a tournament for fear of catching coronavirus was rejected. The 22-year-old known as Kotokantetsu said the Japan Sumo Association had insisted he fight in the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament, which began on Sunday and […]

Seven mass coronavirus vaccination sites opened across England on Monday as the government races to dose millions of people while a new strain of the disease runs rampant across the country. The sites include football stadiums and a horse racing course, and are located in cities including Bristol, London, Newcastle and Manchester. They are to […]

Jakarta — The black box recorders from an Indonesian passenger plane that crashed into the sea shortly after take-off on Saturday (Jan 9) have been located, according to officials. Divers are now closing in on them. The Sriwijaya Air plane had taken off at 2.36 pm from Jakarta airport for the city of Pontianak in […]

Singapore — The next World Economic Forum (WEF) Special Annual Meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Singapore, has been pushed back by two weeks to from May 25 to 28 this year. The global summit, which brings together top leaders in politics, business and academia, was initially supposed to take place from May […]

Biden says Trump decision to skip inauguration a ‘good thing’ US President-elect Joe Biden welcomed Donald Trump’s announcement on Friday that he won’t attend the January 20 inauguration, calling it a “good thing.” “I was told on the way over here that he indicated he wasn’t going to show up at the inauguration,” Biden told […]

Singapore — Rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday (Jan 6), making headlines around the world and forcing members of Congress to leave the building. It was reported later that four people had died in the insurrection, which many believed to have been incited by President Donald Trump on the day when Congress was to have […]

British model Stella Tennant, known for her androgynous, aristocratic style and who was the face of campaigns by top designers, killed herself last month, her family said. Tennant died in Scotland on December 7, five days after her 50th birthday. Police said at the time there were no suspicious circumstances. “Stella had been unwell for […]

Shares in South Korean automaker Hyundai soared Friday on the back of reports it was in talks with Apple for a joint project to manufacture self-driving electric vehicles. Hyundai Motor shares rocketed 19.4 percent in Seoul, with its affiliate Kia also jumping 8.4 percent at the close. The moves came after cable broadcaster Korea Economic […]

by Amal JAYASINGHE Sri Lanka’s government insisted Friday on the cremation of all coronavirus victims, rejecting international pleas and recommendations from its own experts to allow the Muslim minority to bury their dead in line with Islamic custom. The government first banned burials in April amid concerns — which experts say are baseless — by […]

by Anna MALPAS Travellers arriving in England and Scotland will soon be required to show negative coronavirus tests, officials said on Friday, as they try to curb the spread of new strains. The UK government had previously argued against the requirement, which has already been introduced in other countries, saying quarantining of those arriving from […]

China has sealed off two cities south of Beijing, cutting transport links and banning millions of residents from leaving, as authorities move to stem the country’s largest Covid-19 outbreak in six months. The pandemic has so far broadly been brought to heel by Chinese authorities since its emergence in Wuhan in late 2019, with small […]

The chaos unleashed on the US Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters dominated front pages across the world Thursday, with headlines such as “Trump sets fire to Washington”, “Democracy under siege”, and “The Coup of Madness”. For the most part the international press laid the blame squarely at the outgoing president’s feet, accusing him of having […]

by Hiroshi HIYAMA Japan’s government will declare a coronavirus state of emergency in the greater Tokyo area on Thursday, as media said the capital would again report a record daily number of infections. The new month-long restrictions will be far less strict than the harsh lockdowns seen in other parts of the world, and softer […]

by Shaun Tandon, Camille Camdessus and Michael Mathes Congress formally certified Joe Biden as the next US president on Thursday, dealing a hammer blow to Donald Trump whose supporters stormed the Capitol hours earlier,  triggering unprecedented scenes of mayhem in the seat of American democracy. Lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives successfully beat […]

by AFP Bureaus Countries in Asia were stepping up their fight against the coronavirus again on Thursday in a fresh effort to suppress an illness they had previously tamed, joining Europe in imposing new curbs. Japan was set to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo ahead of the release of figures expected to show […]