World

Passengers prepare to enter Shenzhen through the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Control Point on the first day of the resumption of normal travel between Hong Kong and mainland China on Jan. 8, 2023, in Hong Kong. Li Zhihua | China News Service | Getty Images Mainland China's move away from its zero-Covid policy has led to a sharp surge in infections, and the resumption of travel means some are looking farther afield for vaccines. In mid-December, China's full Covid vaccination rate stood near 87%, with 54% boosted. The main Covid vaccines approved for use in China are from Sinovac and Sinopharm. Mainlanders have been flocking to Macao in recent months for Western mRNA vaccines, which are widely administered around the world but not endorsed by China. But even if patients attempted booking an appo...

SINGAPORE: A senior engineer at SBS Transit asked for money from the owner of a vendor supplying services to the transport company, in order to pay off his debts and handphone bills. Lau Yuen Fai, 61, was fined S$3,600 and ordered to pay a penalty of S$1,350 for his crimes on Thursday (Jan 19). Lau pleaded guilty to two counts under the Prevention of Corruption Act of accepting gratification in exchange for engaging the vendor for jobs. A third charge was taken into consideration. The court heard that Lau got to know Poh Beng Chye, the sole proprietor of Clear Cut Engineering which fabricated and supplied machine parts and carried out maintenance jobs, during his previous employment. Lau worked at Sembawang Shipyard between 1996 and 2001, and became acquainted with Poh there. They beca...

TAIPEI :Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, said on Thursday output at its iPhone plant in China had "basically returned to normal" and December revenue, down 12.3 per cent year-on-year, marked the start of a recovery. Production of Apple iPhones faced disruption ahead of Christmas and January's Lunar New Year holidays, after curbs to control COVID-19 prompted thousands of workers to leave Foxconn's factory lines in China's Zhengzhou city. Although lower compared with the previous year, the company said revenue for December was better than it expected and that a "gradual recovery" at its Zhengzhou plant had contributed to "double-digit growth" in revenue for its smart consumer electronics business compared to November. A Foxconn source familiar with the mat...

KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said on Tuesday (Jan 17) he is confident that there will be “significant progress” in resolving outstanding bilateral issues with Malaysia imminently. He added that upcoming talks between the leaders of both countries could include long-standing bilateral issues which “we think are ripe for resolution”. Dr Balakrishnan was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of his four-day visit to Malaysia - his first official visit to the country since Mr Anwar Ibrahim became Malaysia's 10th prime minister in November last year. He was asked about what will be on the agenda when Mr Anwar makes an official visit to Singapore later in January, as well as the Singapore Government’s views on Mr Anwar’s recent statements on the P...

SINGAPORE: Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) fell for the third straight month in December due to weak global demand. NODX fell by 20.6 per cent year in December from a high base a year ago, following the 14.7 per cent decrease in November. According to data released by Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) on Tuesday (Jan 17), the drop was led by both electronics and non-electronics products. On a year-on-year basis, electronics contracted by 17.9 per cent in December, following the 20.2 per cent decline in the previous month. Integrated circuits, disk media products and personal computer parts decreased by 26.0 per cent, 36.5 per cent and 41.7 per cent respectively, contributing the most to the decline in electronics. Non-electronics declined by 21.3 per cent in December fro...

HANOI: Vietnam president Nguyen Xuan Phuc has resigned after the ruling Communist Party blamed him for "violations and wrongdoing" by officials under his control while prime minister, the government said on Tuesday (Jan 17). Phuc, 68, who was premier from 2016 to 2021, has held the largely ceremonial position of president for less than two years and is the highest-ranking official targeted by the party's sweeping corruption crackdown. Vietnam has no paramount ruler and is officially led by four "pillars": the powerful party's secretary, the president, the prime minister and the chair of the legislature. "Fully being aware of his responsibilities before the party and people, he submitted an application to resign from his assigned positions, quit his job and retire," the government said i...

An elderly woman receives a dose of Covid-19 vaccine at a clinic on Dec. 12, 2022 in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. China said on Saturday nearly 60,000 people with COVID-19 had died in hospital since it abandoned its zero-COVID policy last month, a huge increase from previously reported figures that follows global criticism of the country's coronavirus data. In early December, Beijing abruptly dismantled its strict three-year anti-virus regime of frequent testing, travel curbs and mass lockdowns after widespread protests in late November, and cases have surged since then across the nation of 1.4 billion. A health official said on Saturday that COVID fever and emergency hospitalizations had peaked and the number of hospitalized patients was continuing to decline. Be...

OpenAI logo seen on screen with ChatGPT website displayed on mobile seen in this illustration in Brussels, Belgium, on December 12, 2022. Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images Attendees of the annual World Economic Forum couldn't get enough of a new development in the realm of artificial intelligence: generative AI. Priya Lakhani, CEO of online learning platform Century, said educators flocked to social media moments after ChatGPT came out talking about AI and how it could affect the education sector. "It's really amazing actually. What I've seen across social media conversations is that there are educators who are seeing it as an enabler, and that's fascinating," Lakhani said during a WEF panel discussing the potential and pitfalls of generative AI. "They've gotten over the digital fati...

A China Southern Airlines Co Ltd flight on a Boeing Co 737 MAX took off on Friday, flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed, marking the first passenger service on the model by a Chinese airline since March 2019. Here is a timeline of events surrounding the MAX: 2017 MARCH 8 - The 737 MAX gains U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification. MAY 22 - The MAX enters commercial service on Lion Air subsidiary Malindo Air. 2018 OCT. 29 - A Lion Air MAX plane crashes in Indonesia, killing all 189 people on board. 2019 MARCH 10 - An Ethiopian Airlines MAX crashes, killing all 157 people on board. MARCH 11 - China's aviation regulator becomes the first in the world to ground the MAX. MARCH 13 - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration joins other major global regulators in...

Competition from private companies in the space race is heating up, whether it's to the moon or Mars or beyond. But with ever more focus on clean fuels and reducing carbon footprints, some are tackling how to make the space race clean. Big names like SpaceX are flying rockets that return to earth to be used again, but one Seattle-based startup wants to take that even further. Stoke Space is developing a clean-fueled, rapidly reusable rocket that can deliver satellites into earth's orbit, while protecting the earth itself by creating fewer emissions. Its founder and CEO is a veteran of Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin. Stoke Space is still in the first stages of testing the rocket and is a long way off from taking satellites into space. It is still working through not just the techn...