The United States (US) led a chorus of concern on Tuesday over a World Health Organisation (WHO)-backed report into the origins of the coronavirus in China, with accusations swirling that Beijing failed to give proper access to investigators.The United States released a statement with 13 of its allies - Britain, Japan and Australia among them - saying the inquiry had lacked the data and samples it needed.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had earlier made a similar criticism, saying the tea

Civilians wounded in Myanmar air strikes on rebel positions spoke of their terrifying ordeal Tuesday after trekking through jungle to seek medical treatment across the border in Thailand.Military jets hit targets in eastern Karen state on Saturday and Sunday, as Myanmar reeled from the deadliest day so far in the junta's crackdown on anti-coup protests.The strikes targeted territory held by the Karen National Union (KNU), one of the nation's largest ethnic armed groups, which had ea

COVID-19 probably came to people through an animal, and likely started spreading no more than a month or two before it was noticed in December 2019, a World Health Organisation (WHO) draft report finds.The least likely source: a laboratory leak, the WHO's joint international team concluded.The WHO is scheduled to release the final report on its investigation into the origins of coronavirus on Tuesday, but a draft version of the report obtained by CNN shows there's still no smoking g

Myanmar protesters held overnight candle-lit vigils after an advocacy group said security forced had now killed over 500 people since the 1 February coup.

A village watchman trains his binoculars on a suspicious fishing boat - the first line of defence as Thailand braces for a fresh methamphetamine influx after a coup in neighbouring Myanmar.The kingdom's narcotics bureau has already seized more than 80 million "yaba" pills just in the past six months, a record haul partly blamed on a supply glut caused by the coronavirus pandemic.But now the United Nations (UN) warns of an even bigger deluge as Myanmar's legal economy tanks

Two suicide bombers who attacked an Indonesian cathedral on Palm Sunday were newlyweds who joined a pro-Islamic State extremist group, police said Monday, as they arrested others suspected in the plot.About 20 people were wounded in the powerful explosion outside the church in Makassar city on Sulawesi island while worshippers celebrated the start of Holy Week.Both suspects were killed instantly after they rode a motorbike into the church compound and, when challenged by security, detonated a

After weeks of silence as Myanmar ’s military cracked down on civilians protesting against the 1 February coup, the Arakan Army (AA), a major player among the country’s more than two dozen ethnic armed groups, this week announced it was on the side of the people.“The current actions by the Burmese army and police are very cruel and unacceptable,” AA spokesman Khine Thu Khahe said on Tuesday (23 March), adding that “the oppressed ethnic people as a whole will continue to fight for their freedo

Mention the Boxer Rebellion nowadays, and most people in the west would look baffled. Not so the Chinese, who have longer memories.They have not forgotten the invasion launched in 1900 by the United States (US), Britain, Germany, France and other members of the Eight-Nation Alliance to suppress the anti-foreigner, anti-missionary uprising.

The Philippines’ air force has been conducting daily aerial patrols over Chinese fishing vessels moored near a disputed reef, the country’s defence chief said, as he repeated a call to Beijing for their withdrawal from the area.The diplomatic row was touched off earlier this month when some 220 boats were first spotted at the boomerang-shaped Whitsun Reef, west of Palawan Island.The Philippines ordered China to recall the vessels, describing their presence as an incursion into its so

One of two suicide bombers who attacked an Indonesian cathedral on Sunday belonged to a pro-Islamic State extremist group blamed for other church bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines, said Listyo Sigit Prabowo, the police chief.“The perpetrator was part of the JAD group that had carried out the bombing in Jolo, the Philippines,” said the police chief, referring to extremist network Jamaah Ansharut Daulah.The bomb used in Sunday's attack was a pressure cooker bomb, Prabowo a