Thailand

Relatives of a Chinese man whose body was found in a suitcase pulled from the Ping River have demanded the death penalty for his killers, after two of the four hunted suspects were caught in Myanmar. The body of Wang Jun, 30, a Chinese national, was cremated at Wat Bo Samsen in tambon Nong Pling of Muang district of Kamphaeng …

India has suspended the granting of regular visas to nationals of Japan and three other countries to guard against the spread of the new coronavirus. The government, in an official advisory, also said all nationals of Japan, Italy, Iran and South Korea already possessing visas will not be allowed to enter India, excepting in compelling circumstances. The suspension applies to …

Aviation agencies are planning to step up the screening of passengers from countries affected by Covid-19 and are assigning a small airport to specifically handle these flights. Wg Cdr Suthirawat Suwanawat, general manager of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, said he has raised the issue with Chula Sukmanop, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT). According to him, aircraft from …

Shoppers in Greater Bangkok are quickly emptying supermarket shelves of long-lasting items like instant noodles, packed rice, tissue paper, tinned fish and drinking water as fears mount over the coronavirus epidemic. Large retail operators including Tops Supermarket, Tesco Lotus, The Mall Group and Big C Supercenter acknowledged that these items have been snapped up quickly since the weekend. They are …

A coronavirus outbreak has weighed on the transport and tourism sectors in Japan, including bullet trains, with fears about infection making people reluctant to venture outdoors or share confined spaces with others for long hours. The number of passengers between Feb 1 and 19 of the Shinkansen Line connecting Tokyo and Osaka fell 8% from a year earlier, its operator …

Twitter staff across the world were asked to work from home starting Monday in an effort to stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus epidemic. The outbreak has spread across the world since emerging in central China late last year, killing more than 3,100 people, infecting over 90,000, and prompting a wave of travel restrictions. The social media platform’s …

Illegal workers returning home from South Korea to escape the Covid-19 epidemic are being put into voluntary self-quarantine because there is no law requiring they be quarantined, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said on Tuesday. On Monday, Suwanchai Wattanayingcharoenchai, director-general of the Disease Control Department, said the Public Health Ministry was considering whether to apply the same measures as applied …

Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has pledged to fight corruption and strengthen governance, saying he is no traitor but stepped in to save the country from political turmoil. Muhyiddin, 72, was named prime minister on Saturday by the country’s monarch after a weeklong struggle for power following Mahathir Mohamad’s sudden resignation amid bickering in his former coalition. The new …

Public complaints grew louder on Monday over the continuing lack of masks on the back of heightened concerns over the spread of Covid-19, which claimed the life of the 35-year-old man on Saturday night — the first reported death from the virus in the country. People are crying foul over the shortage of masks amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, triggered by …

The global death toll from the new coronavirus epidemic surpassed 3,000 on Monday after more people died at its epicentre in China, as cases soared around the world and US officials faced criticism over the country’s readiness for an outbreak. The virus has now infected more than 88,000 people and spread to more than 60 countries after first emerging in …