Cambodia's strongman ruler Hun Sen held talks Friday with the Myanmar junta – the first foreign leader to visit since the generals seized power almost a year ago.Myanmar has been in chaos since the 1 February coup which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government and ended the country's decade-long dalliance with democracy.More than 1,400 civilians have been killed as the military cracks down on dissent, according to a local monitoring group, and numerous anti-junta militias

After the turmoil of the past two years, the consensus among economic pundits is that 2022 will be calmer. But in late 2019, when the first reports of a new coronavirus started to filter out from Wuhan in China, few imagined within months that the world economy would be flattened by a pandemic.

Once obscure diagnostic devices, lateral flow tests have had a rocky path to mainstream use, but some experts now view their rise to ubiquity as a “heroic” step in the fight against COVID-19 and say they could be here to stay.As the first wave of COVID crashed down in early 2020 and governments scrambled to secure PPE, ventilators and reagents for laboratory testing, behind the scenes some had already foreseen a role for the pregnancy test-style kits.“We started thinking about it in late 2019

Omicron is causing record numbers of cases around the world, and though it causes less severe COVID-19 experts warn this wave still threatens to overwhelm health systems.Nose And Throat, Not LungsSix weeks after it was first sequenced in southern Africa Omicron cases are smashing infection records with average new daily cases at nearly two million this week, according to an AFP tally. At the same time, the illness caused by the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is proving less severe.&

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:COVID Cases Top 300 Million The total number of COVID-19 cases registered worldwide since the start of the pandemic tops 300 million, according to an AFP count based on official figures.Omicron Still Serious: WHO The Omicron variant is killing people across the globe and should not be dismissed as mild, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns, even if it is less severe for the vaccinated."Omicron is hospitalis

Omicron is exposing an East-West divide between governments determined to halt the spread of the variant and those that see its spread as inevitable and even necessary.While some Western countries are accepting the spread of Omicron as a step towards living with the virus, Asian economies are tightening borders and in-country restrictions to keep it at bay.The diverging paths come amid a growing consensus that the variant is far less likely to cause serious illness and death than the Delta va

Asian financial hub Hong Kong banned flights from eight nations on Wednesday as part of strict new virus curbs, with Omicron outbreaks spiralling out of control from Europe to the United States (US).The new coronavirus variant is spreading rapidly across continents, leaving governments rushing to roll out vaccine boosters and bolster healthcare systems as infection numbers reach new highs.Britain, the US, France and Australia have all announced record case numbers in recent days, while China

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday ordered the arrest of unvaccinated people who violate stay-at-home orders aimed at curbing "galloping" coronavirus infections driven by the Omicron variant.The government tightened restrictions in Manila and several provinces and cities this week.

China has faced criticism for its lending practices to poorer countries, accused of leaving them struggling to repay debts and therefore vulnerable to pressure from Beijing.But that is rejected by China, which accuses some in the West of promoting this narrative to tarnish its image.It says: "There is not a single country that has fallen into [a] so-called 'debt trap' as a result of borrowing from China."What Do We Know About China's Lending?China is one of the world&

North Korea has successfully tested a hypersonic missile, state media reported Thursday, in the first major weapons test by the nuclear-armed nation this year.This was the second reported North Korean test of a hypersonic gliding missile to date - following one in September last year - as Pyongyang looks to add the sophisticated weapon to its arsenal despite international sanctions and condemnation.Hypersonic missiles move far faster and are more agile than standard ones, making them much har