TOKYO: Japan’s government is expected to widen a virus state of emergency Friday, just 10 weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, as campaigners submitted a petition with more than 350,000 signatures urging the Games be scrapped. With Tokyo and other areas already under emergency orders until the end of May, three
SAN FRANCISCO: An update to the software powering some billion iPhones around the world kicks in Monday with an enhanced privacy feature critics fear will roil the internet advertising world. Apple will begin requiring app makers to tell users what tracking information they want to gather and get permission to
NEW DELHI: India’s capital New Delhi on Sunday extended its lockdown as the country’s Covid-19 crisis grew with infections and deaths hitting record highs. The announcement came as the healthcare system struggled to cope with the huge surge, with reports of severe oxygen and medicine shortages and patients’ families pleading
BALI: All 53 crew aboard an Indonesian submarine that disappeared last week were killed, the military said Sunday as it confirmed the vessel had been found in pieces on the seafloor. Authorities said that they picked up signals early Sunday from a location more than 800 metres (2,600 feet) deep
LONDON: It’s one of Britain’s more unusual legal wrangles, involving a chocolate cake in the shape of a caterpillar and two of the country’s best-known retailers. Marks and Spencer has threatened its cheaper supermarket rival Aldi and the high-street giants have traded barbs on social media. M&S’ food store chain
PARIS: Instagram started offering users on Wednesday the option to filter incoming direct message requests for hurtful language, a step aimed at showing the Facebook-owned social network is serious about reducing online harassment. “Because DMs are private conversations, we don’t proactively look for hate speech or bullying the same way
HONG KONG: A 90-year-old Hong Kong woman has been conned out of $32million by fraudsters posing as Chinese officials, police said, in the city’s biggest recorded phone scam. Hong Kong’s elderly are plagued by phone scammers who seek out vulnerable and wealthy victims willing to transfer money or make bogus
TAIPEI: Keen to make the most of a statutory holiday for newlyweds, a couple from Taiwan found a novel way to maximise their honeymoon — by marrying four times in just over a month. The unusual story, confirmed by Taipei’s Labour Department on Wednesday, is the latest to go viral
BEIJING: Handlebars tight in snaking rows of colour, thousands of abandoned bicycles line an open field outside the city of Shenyang, relics of a shared bike mania that has overwhelmed China’s cities. The turquoise, blue and yellow bicycles, arranged in long lines, some piled on top of each other, bear
TAIPEI: In the foothills of Taiwan’s mountainous spine, reservoirs are running dry as the island experiences its worst drought in decades — a crisis that risks deepening an already acute global semiconductor shortage. Taiwan is home to some of the world’s biggest and most advanced high-tech foundries, a linchpin of