Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended the United States (US) decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, saying the terror threat had moved elsewhere and that Washington needed to refocus resources on challenges such as China.President Joe Biden announced last week that the US would withdraw all forces from the country before this year's 20th anniversary of the 11 September attacks.The unconditional withdrawal – four months later than a deadline agreed with the Taliban

Myanmar's shadow government on Sunday urged Southeast Asian leaders to give it a seat at the table during crisis talks next week, and not to recognise the military regime that seized power in a February coup.Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing is expected to join a special ASEAN summit on Myanmar on Saturday in Jakarta – his first official overseas trip since the putsch that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.The army has moved to quell mass protests against its rule, killing at least 730

The global COVID-19 death toll passed three million on Saturday as the pandemic speeds up despite vaccination campaigns, leading countries like India to impose new lockdowns to fight spiralling infection numbers. It is the latest grim milestone since the novel coronavirus first surfaced in central China in December 2019 and went on to infect more than 139 million people, leaving billions more under crippling lockdowns and ravaging the global economy.An average of more than 12,000 dea

Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing will join a special ASEAN summit next week, the Thai foreign ministry said Saturday, his first official trip since masterminding a coup which deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.The 1 February putsch triggered a massive uprising, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets to demand a return to democracy, while civil servants have boycotted work in a bid to shutter the junta's administration.The military has deployed lethal force

The head of Pfizer said in an interview aired Thursday that people will "likely" need a third dose of his company's COVID-19 shot within six to 12 months of vaccination, while elsewhere defending the relatively higher cost of the jab.CEO Albert Bourla also said annual vaccinations against the coronavirus may well be required."We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that, that remains to be seen," Bourla said in a CNBC interview recor

Have you had the single-shot Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine within the last month?If you experience a severe headache that does not go away, significant abdominal or leg pain that does not subside, or increasing shortness of breath, health officials want you to call your doctor immediately.Those could be signs of an extremely rare, severe type of clot that may be linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – so rare that only six cases have been reported in the United

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte must end his “policy of subservience” towards Beijing, lawmakers and foreign policy experts have said, warning that the Filipino leader’s silence is sending the wrong signal as hundreds of Chinese “maritime militia” vessels continue to congregate within Manila’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea.While several Filipino officials, including the country’s top diplomat and the defence chief, have openly demanded that the Ch

United States (US) President Joe Biden has signed an executive order that imposes a slate of new sanctions against Russia, as well as expelling 10 diplomats from the US, in response to a massive Russian hacking campaign that breached vital federal agencies, as well as for election interference.President Biden said he warned Russia President Vladimir Putin about the sanctions when they spoke by telephone in a “candid, respectful conversation” on 13 April.

Spiralling COVID-19 cases have put Cambodia "on the brink of death", its strongman premier Hun Sen has warned, as the country imposed lockdowns in the capital city of Phnom Penh as well as in a nearby city.The Southeast Asian kingdom has seen COVID-19 cases surge since February, when an outbreak was first detected among its Chinese expatriate community. Authorities said last week that hospitals in Phnom Penh were running out of beds and that they had transformed schools and

Myanmar's military opened fire on protesting healthcare workers Thursday, killing at least one bystander as the demonstrators fled for safety to a nearby mosque. The country has been in turmoil since the military seized power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February, triggering a massive uprising that the junta has sought to quell using lethal force. But protesters have continued taking to the streets, this week using the Myanmar New Year holiday of Thingyan