More than 27 million people in the Philippines - about a quarter of the population - will go back into lockdown Tuesday after overwhelmed health workers warned the country was losing the battle against the coronavirus.Since the beginning of June, when much of the country emerged from one of the world's longest stay-at-home orders, confirmed infections in the archipelago have increased fivefold, surging past 100,000.The new restrictions announced by President Rodrigo Duterte late Sunday a

The number of coronavirus cases recorded worldwide topped 18 million on Monday with the illness continuing its march, after Australia's second-largest city imposed a curfew to halt the spread.Six months after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency, the virus has killed more than 687,000 people since it first emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources.Fresh clusters have been reported in countries that had previously

President Donald Trump is days away from announcing strong action against the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok to protect United States (US) national security, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday.He said TikTok and other Chinese software companies operating in the US, such as WeChat, feed personal data on American citizens directly to the Chinese Communist Party. For years the US has put up with this because Americans felt "we're having fun with it,&quo

Anthony Fauci, the United States' (US) top infectious disease official, raised concerns Friday regarding the safety of COVID-19 vaccines under development by China and Russia.Several Chinese companies are at the forefront of the global vaccine race, while Russia has said it hopes to be the first in the world to produce a vaccine for the public, with a target date of September.But the medicines will likely face heightened scrutiny given that the regulatory systems in both countries are ve

Southeast Asian countries reported record rises of new coronavirus cases on Saturday as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the effects of the pandemic would be felt for decades. Six months after the WHO declared a global emergency, the novel coronavirus has killed more than 680,000 people and infected more than 17.5 million, according to an AFP tally.As countries across Western Europe announced new lockdowns and reported historic economic slumps, the WHO said the pandemi

Hong Kong's democracy supporters were dealt a huge blow Friday as authorities postponed local elections for a year because of the coronavirus, capping a devastating month of political disqualifications, arrests for social media posts and activists fleeing overseas.Chinese state media reported late Friday that Hong Kong police have ordered the arrest of six pro-democracy activists living in exile on suspicion of violating a new national security law.The city's democracy camp has come

Vietnam recorded its first coronavirus death on Friday as the pandemic rebounds in a country that had previously been praised for stubbing out the contagion.The patient, a 70-year-old man, died in the central city of Hoi An nearly three weeks after being admitted to hospital with serious underlying conditions, according to state media.The communist nation was applauded earlier this year for controlling COVID-19 with strict restrictions on movement, extensive quarantine measures and a robust t

More than 21,000 people in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi have been ordered to take a coronavirus test, authorities said Thursday as they scrambled to contain the nation's first outbreak after three virus-free months.At the weekend, a man in the coastal city of Danang tested positive for COVID-19 – the first community transmission the country had detected since April.Since then, more than 40 new infections have been found, spreading out from popular tourist destination Danang to neighbouri

Four Hong Kong students involved in a recently disbanded pro-independence group were arrested by police on Wednesday under a controversial new national security law, officers and members of the group said.The arrests are the first to target public political figures since the sweeping legislation was imposed on the city by Beijing late last month.Police said three men and one woman aged between 16 and 21 were arrested on suspicion of organising and inciting secession."Our sources and inve

Several thousand protesters marched in southeast Myanmar on Tuesday to demand the military's withdrawal from the area and an end to rights abuses after soldiers allegedly killed an unarmed woman from the Karen ethnic group.In a rare acknowledgement of wrongdoing, the military confirmed that two soldiers had been arrested for the shooting of Naw Mu Naw, 40, and robbery of her gold jewellery in Dwe Lo township in Karen state on 16 July.The court-martial of the arrested men was already unde