Asia News fra SCMP

China and Pakistan’s declaration that they will closely cooperate in Afghanistan – as the last US and international troops withdraw, leaving a security vacuum being exploited by Taliban insurgents – has begun to worry Indian policymakers.New Delhi’s relations with both Beijing and Islamabad are strained, and the five-point plan for collaboration announced by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his visiting Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi during their meeting over the weekend is an…

Follow our live coverage of day four of the Tokyo Olympics here.Seven more people related to the Tokyo Olympic Games have tested positive for Covid-19, including two athletes from overseas, bringing the total since the start of this month to 155, organisers said on Tuesday.The two athletes, one of whom is a Dutch tennis player, were both living in the athletes’ village. The others are three Games-related officials, one contractor and a member of the organising committee. Of the seven, five were…

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, on Tuesday reported its biggest daily rise of locally acquired cases of Covid-19 for 16 months as total infections in the latest outbreak from the highly infectious Delta variant neared 2,400.A total of 172 new local cases were detected in New South Wales, up from 145 a day earlier.Of the new cases, at least 60 spent time while infectious in the community while the isolation status of 32 cases remained under investigation, state Premier Gladys…

South Korea and North Korea on Tuesday reopened a severed communication hotline and the two countries’ leaders agreed to rebuild trust and improve ties, Seoul’s presidential Blue House said.President Moon Jae-in and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un have also exchanged multiple letters since April in which they committed to restoring inter-Korean ties, it said.“The two leaders have agreed to restore mutual trust and improve relations between the South and the North,” Moon’s spokesman Park Soo…

When fully vaccinated Cambodian boxing star Eh Phouthong came down with Covid-19 two weeks ago, he needed a continuous supply of oxygen and used a new tank almost every hour for the first 24 hours, according to his wife, Taing Somaly.But the 46-year-old former boxer-turned-coach, who also has heart disease, got better after about a week of treatment. “He’s not feeling sick any more,” Somaly said. “Doctors told me without a vaccine, his condition could be even worse.”Since Cambodia launched its…

A media spotlight has been trained on Meng Wanzhou’s fight in Vancouver to avoid a US trial for more than two years, but another international extradition battle involving a once high-profile business figure has been quietly playing out in the same court for even longer.The South China Morning Post has learned that Jung Myung-soo, a former real estate tycoon behind what was one of Metro Vancouver’s biggest property developments, is wanted by his native South Korea to face multimillion-dollar…

Malaysian contract doctors who staged a wildcat walkout on Monday in protest over unfair treatment are satisfied with the wide public attention their industrial action has received and will cooperate with police investigations, according to a spokesman.Organisers of the Hartal Doktor Kontrak – or “contract doctors’ strike” – estimated that some 6,000 to 8,000 of the 23,077 contract doctors in the national health care system took part in the walkout at 11am.This Week in Asia could not…

SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund 2 led a US$75 million funding round for Embark Veterinary Inc, a genetics start-up that seeks to increase dog lifespans.The transaction values the US-based company at US$700 million, Embark CEO Ryan Boyko said in an interview.“We give pet owners and breeders tools to create the best future for their dogs and want to be able to expand our audience,” Boyko said, noting that Embark plans to use the proceeds for hiring and product development. “The topic of…

Tighter restrictions for fully vaccinated residents in Singapore could be eased before August 18, with quarantine-free travel on the cards in the months ahead, finance minister Lawrence Wong said on Monday.The city state expects 80 per cent of its 5.7 million people to be fully vaccinated by September, allowing for the possibility that residents who have received two doses would not need to serve a 14-day hotel quarantine when they return from overseas. And if a review in early August finds…

Sydney’s daily Covid-19 cases climbed and are expected to keep rising after thousands took to the streets over the weekend in defiance of the lockdown restrictions sweeping parts of Australia.The city of almost 6 million people recorded 145 new cases on Monday, up by a handful from the day before, with half of the people active in the community while infectious. There have been 2,226 cases since the latest outbreak began in mid-June, fuelled by the contagious Delta variant. Most cases were…