Researchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study published Monday in the US science journal PNAS.Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.It possesses "all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans," say the authors, scientists at Chinese universities and China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention.From 2011 to 2018, researcher

The battered bodies of more than 160 jade miners were pulled from a sea of mud after a landslide in northern Myanmar on Thursday, after one of the worst-ever accidents to hit the treacherous industry.Scores die each year while working in the country's lucrative but poorly regulated jade trade, which uses low-paid migrant workers to scrape out a gem highly coveted in China.The disaster struck after heavy rainfall pounded the open-cast mines, close to the Chinese border in Kachin state, wh

Much has happened this year. From 2019-2020 Australian bushfires – also known as the Black Summer – to intense heat with severe drought conditions developing in multiple Asian countries and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic which has taken over half a million lives worldwide. Conspiracy theorists citing the Mayan calendar and even the Bible claim that the end of the world is upon us.

With her husband left jobless by the pandemic, the last thing Indonesian mother Juarsih needed was to get pregnant, but now she's expecting a third child - one of many in the country anxiously preparing for a COVID-fuelled baby boom.Indonesian authorities believe there could be 400,000 more births than usual next year as lockdowns keep couples at home and cut access to contraception, prompting fears of an increase in abortions and stunting of children in poorer families. Juarsih

The coronavirus crisis has taken a much heavier toll on jobs than previously feared, the United Nations (UN) said Tuesday, warning that the situation in the Americas was particularly dire.In a fresh study, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that by the mid-year point, global working hours were down 14 percent compared to last December - equivalent to some 400 million full-time jobs.That is more than double the number forecast by the UN organisation back in April, when it ex

The coronavirus crisis has severely affected livelihoods, local industries and the economy in general. It has also disrupted world trade, supply chains and also the production of food and agricultural products and commodities. According to Samarendu Mohanty, Asia Regional Director at the International Potato Center, the production of wheat and rice in Asia would be heavily impacted if lockdowns to curb the pandemic and virus restrictions continue to be enforced.

At least 122 children have been killed in the Philippines' war on drugs - often deliberately, two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said Monday, urging the United Nations (UN) to take action.The NGOs fear that the true figure is way higher, they said in a report, as the United Nations Human Rights Council prepares to assess the situation in the Philippines.President Rodrigo Duterte's hardline anti-drugs campaign has come under fire from rights activists who say police are encour

The COVID-19 crisis has prompted governments to adopt strict measures to contain the virus which include enforced quarantines, citywide lockdowns, curfews, limitations on economic activities and public life.

A group of Rohingya say they were beaten by traffickers and drank their own urine to stay alive on a perilous four-month journey at sea until their dramatic rescue near the Indonesian coast.The bedraggled survivors - about 100 in all, mostly women and children - described a high-seas horror story that saw them reduced to throwing the dead overboard as their rickety craft drifted thousands of kilometres towards Malaysia.Two survivors claimed that people smugglers paid to transport them had bea

Water levels in Southeast Asia’s largest river may be at its lowest in a century.Low rainfall, high temperatures and poor dam regulations are contributing to a historic low at the Mekong, affecting lives, the region’s agriculture and fishing industries and leading to rapidly drying taps.Chinese dams control the flow of the 4,350-kilometre (km) river which originates in the Tibetan highlands before travelling across Myanmar, Lao, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.