Asia

China

WHO investigators visit Wuhan live animal market in COVID-19 probe

The market was the site of a December 2019 outbreak of the virus. Scientists initially suspected the virus came from wild animals sold in the market. The market has since been largely ruled out but it could provide hints to how the virus spread so widely.

31/01/2021

United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates will offer citizenship to some foreign nationals

Sheikh Mohammed wrote on Twitter that hereditary rulers in the country's seven emirates and at the federal level would nominate those for citizenship.

30/01/2021

Syria

UN: 27,000 children need to be repatriated from ISIS camp in Syria

Voronkov said there are children from 60 countries in the camps who are the responsibility of their member states, not of Syria or the groups that control the camps.

30/01/2021

China

China: WHO investigators visit second Wuhan hospital

Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital was one of the city’s first to deal with patients in early 2020 suffering from a then-unknown virus and is a key part of the epidemiological history of the disease.

30/01/2021

Conscious Travel

Community immersion tourism: Staying with a Bedouin family in Oman

As part of our Conscious Travel series, we look at influencer Eva Zu Beck’s recent experience in Wahiba Sands.

29/01/2021

No Comment

New clashes heighten tensions at India farmer protests

Tensions have been building around the farmers' camps since Republic Day on Tuesday, when a tractor rally turned into a citywide rampage which left one farmer dead and nearly 400 police injured.

29/01/2021

China

China withdraws passport recognition amid Hong Kong UK visa row

Britain says it will open a visa scheme to Hong Kongers from Sunday, but China says it 'interferes in China's internal affairs'

29/01/2021

China

WHO team visits Wuhan hospital that had early COVID patients

A World Health Organization team visited a hospital where China says the first COVID-19 patients were treated more than a year ago as part of the experts' long-awaited fact-finding mission on the origins of the coronavirus.

29/01/2021

Explore

Tokyo: Japan's city garden

In partnership with Tokyo Metropolitan Government

In this edition of Transforming Tokyo, we look at how nature projects are turning Japan's capital into a city full of rooftop gardens, parks and green zones.

28/01/2021

No Comment

India's military parade interrupted by protesting farmers

Authorities had agreed to allow tens of thousands of farmers to stage a tractor rally as long as they waited for the military parade to end.

26/01/2021

No Comment

Palestinian youth determined to continue parkour despite losing leg

Aliwa dreamed of becoming a parkour professional and decided that he would not let his disability hold him back from achieving it.

25/01/2021

No Comment

Ultra-Orthadox Jews clash with Israeli police over COVID restrictions

The scuffles broke out as police tried to close religious schools that had opened despite coronavirus lockdown rules.

24/01/2021

No Comment

Eleven Chinese miners saved as rescuers race to find remaining ten

Rescuers in east China have pulled 11 miners from hundreds of metres underground where they were trapped for two weeks, as the race to locate the remaining 10 intensifies.

24/01/2021

China

11 trapped workers rescued from China mine after two weeks

Eleven workers trapped for two weeks by an explosion inside a Chinese gold mine were brought safely to the surface on Sunday.

24/01/2021

China

Relaxed scenes in Wuhan - a year on from alerting the world to COVID

Exactly a year ago, Wuhan shocked the world by confining its 11 million inhabitants to their homes, beginning a 76-day lockdown.

23/01/2021

No Comment

Hong Kong puts 10,000 people into lockdown - the city's first

The lockdown in the Yau Tsim Mong district will be in place until every resident is tested - something expected to take around 48 hours.

23/01/2021

No Comment

Beijing starts second day of mass COVID testing for residents

Beijing plans to test two million people in 48 hours as the city rushes to stop a new local cluster of COVID cases.

23/01/2021

China

Thousands in Hong Kong locked down to contain coronavirus

Thousands of residents in Hong Kong were locked down on Saturday to contain a worsening COVID outbreak.

23/01/2021

No Comment

A year on from lockdown, Wuhan's young enjoy their freedom

As the rest of the world continues to grapple with lockdowns and soaring infections, young people in the city, once the epicentre of the novel coronavirus, are enjoying their hard-earned freedom.

22/01/2021

Japan

Tokyo 2020: Japan rebuffs claims Olympics Games will be cancelled

A majority of the Japanese think the Olympic Games in the capital should be postponed again or cancelled amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

22/01/2021

Experiences

Japan is now offering virtual tours to locked down travellers

Now you can marvel at Japanese art and sightsee without stepping foot in the Asian country.

21/01/2021

China

China mine explosion: Race on to rescue trapped workers as one dies

Rescuers have been in contact with some trapped workers and have delivered supplies since the January 10 explosion at a new gold mine under construction in the eastern Shandong province.

21/01/2021

China

Bejing slaps sanctions on 'anti-China' Trump officials

The sanctions are largely symbolic but underscore Beijing’s antipathy toward a US administration it regarded as hostile.

21/01/2021

Destinations

Tourists in Bali are being made to do push-ups for not wearing masks

Police have been filmed stopping tourists in the street and making them do push-ups.

20/01/2021

No Comment

Japan: Priests pour icy water over themselves as part of annual ritual

The annual ritual, called Daikan Misogi, is held at the coldest time of the year, based on a traditional lunisolar calendar.

20/01/2021

No Comment

Celebrations for VP-elect Kamala Harris in Indian ancestral village

Villagers in Kamala Harris' ancestral village of Thulasendrapuram in southern India hold special prayers and burst firecrackers, ahead of the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC.

20/01/2021