World News
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Japanese man makes job out of hanging out with people
Tired of sitting around waiting to find your dream job? What if sitting around could BE your dream job? A man in Japan is doing just that as he charges lonely people over 2,500 baht an hour just to hang out or accompany them. Tokyo resident Shoji Morimoto is 38 years old and has created a lucrative job out of…
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China approves world’s first inhaled Covid-19 vaccine
For those deathly afraid of needles, China is the first country in the world to approve the CanSino Biologics Inc Covid-19 vaccine, the first of its kind that is inhaled instead of jabbed. The vaccine manufacturer announced yesterday that it had won approval from the drug regulators of China to use the inhalant that they recently created as a booster…
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Malaysian victim of human trafficking dies in northern Thailand
A Malaysian couple travelled to Thailand on Tuesday to look for their son but found out that he died at Mae Sot Hospital in Tak province, northern Thailand, on May 11. The 23 year old man is believed to have fallen victim to a job scam and trafficked to Myanmar. The hospital said Zhan had been “abused.” Zhan Feng, from…
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Nirvana naked baby album cover subject loses lawsuit
Perhaps the most famous naked baby of the 90s, the iconic photo that graced the cover of the seminal Nirvana album “Nevermind” has been the subject of a lawsuit that was just dismissed. Spencer Elden is not a household name, but most people who were teens or in their early 20s in the early 1990s remember the photo of him…
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Burmese junta sentences former UK ambassador to 1 year in prison
After the Burmese junta arrested a former UK ambassador to Myanmar, along with her husband, on August 24, the junta yesterday sentenced them to a year in prison. The former ambassador, Vicky Bowman, is the director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business. She served as the UK’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2002-2006. Her husband, Htein Lin, is a Burmese…
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North Korea throws shade at “US puppet” human rights leader
North Korea is up to its hate-mongering tactics again. Today, the country called a United Nations special rapporteur on North Korean Human Rights a “puppet of the US.” An unnamed spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an English statement on state-run media… “We had already made clear our principled stand that we neither recognize nor deal…
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Thailand to host APEC CEO Summit 2022 with a focus on post-Covid economies
Thailand is set to host the APEC CEO Summit 2022 with a key theme of focusing on rehabilitating economies after the Covid-19 epidemic. The Embrace, Engage and Enable theme will see a gathering of the world’s top CEOs, policymakers, and other leaders from 21 member economies. Set to start on November 16-18, 2022, organisers say the summit will be the…
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India hit by unusually heavy rainfall
India experienced unusually heavy rain for the month of August, the country’s state-run weather office reported on Wednesday. Last month’s rainfall was 3.4% above India’s average. In July, India’s rainfall was 16.8% above average. The heavy rainfall has caused floods to wreak havoc across the country. This week, about 700 tribal people in the western state of Maharashtra were forced…
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1 in 5 foreigners undocumented in South Korea
Data supplied by the Justice Ministry today revealed that one out of five foreigners in South Korea is living in the country illegally. The report states that about 400,000 foreigners are living undocumented in the Southeast Asian country, its highest in two years. It is believed the number of illegal foreigners staying in Korea rose from 388,000 last December to…
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Cambodian politician leads apocalyptic cult
A Cambodian politician has started an apocalyptic cult. The president of the League for Democracy Party, Khem Veasna, claims that he is a reincarnation of the Hindu god Brahma. The so-called “Brahma” has now “prophesised” that massive biblical-level floods will swallow up all of the Earth, except for his farm in Siem Reap province. Quite a few people believe Khem,…
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China locks down 21 million people in Chengdu
The city of Chengdu in China, home to over 21 million people, will go into lockdown at 6pm today to control another Covid-19 outbreak. The country’s President Xi Jinping has committed to a ‘Covid Zero’ approach, despite the detrimental economic effects of lockdowns. Residents of the capital of Sichuan province must stay home at all times, except for mandatory Covid…
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Former Soviet Union premier Mikhail Gorbachev dies aged 91
Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev died last night aged 91. The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow stated, “Gorbachev died this evening after a serious and long illness.” He will be buried in Moscow’s Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died in 1999. Tributes have been poured in for the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner. UN chief Antonio…
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Groups of 8 or more dining in Hong Kong required to Covid test
A new Covid-19 regulation that came into effect yesterday in Hong Kong is drawing ire from groups of diners and restaurants. The new rule requires all members of any group of eight or more dining in restaurants to present a photo of a negative Covid test taken within 24 hours of dining or a text message confirmation of a negative…
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Royal Caribbean offers cruises to Thailand & other Asian locations in 2023
Royal Caribbean has announced a new series of Asian cruises on their ship ‘Spectrum of the Seas,’ setting sail in 2023 and 2024. Beginning in Singapore, travellers can set off on cruises for 5, 7, 9 or 12 nights, visiting various locations in Asia including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan and Japan. Guests can choose from cruises which make stops…
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US plays mischief-maker in Taiwan Strait to infuriate China
To no one’s surprise, the United States provided further evidence of playing mischief-maker in other nations’ affairs yesterday when two US warships passed through the Taiwan Strait. It comes less than a month since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan and made a number of crass comments to infuriate China. Washington says the two guided-missile cruisers, the USS Antietam…
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Divers in Singapore find 8 dead blacktip sharks
In the waters of Pulau Hantu, islands just south of Singapore, divers made a gruesome and heartbreaking discovery: the lifeless bodies of eight young blacktip sharks who appeared to have died from wounds to their gills. Sharks are rare to spot in the area, so it was especially gut-wrenching to discover them dead. The divers who discovered it were shocked…
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VIDEO: Brazillian footballer thanks the wrong girlfriend in an interview
A Brazilian football player might have put a foot in his mouth this week when he was asked in an interview if he wanted to give a tribute to someone. The goalkeeper, Kainan, gave a seemingly noble reply. He said… “To my girlfriend, who’s working now, Thank God, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. Grazi, a hug to you!” But Kainan’s…
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Moderna suing Pfizer for using their tech in Covid vaccines
After Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine brought in US$22 billion so far this year compared to Moderna’s US$10.4 billion, Moderna is suing Pfizer, claiming they copied technology in developing their vaccines. Moderna, a decade-old company that had been pioneering mRNA technology long before Covid-19, had said at the start of the pandemic that they wouldn’t enforce related patents to help the world…
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UPDATE: Burmese junta releases statement on charges for former UK ambassador
UPDATE The Burmese junta said in a statement yesterday that it has charged a former UK ambassador to the country with immigration offenses. This news comes after anonymous sources reported yesterday that the former ambassador Vicky Bowman and her husband had been detained in Yangon. Local media reports that the two had been detained on Wednesday night, and are being…
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US spits dummy out in China tit-for-tat airline row
The childish rattle-throwing, tit-for-tat games continue between the United States and China with the US declaring it is banning 26 flights to China in response to the mainland suspending some US flights for importing Covid-19. The US spat its dummy out in objection to China revising its Covid policies. The mainland stated on August 7 that if 4% of passengers…
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Hong Konger stuck in Myanmar pleads for help after being kidnapped in Thailand
A man from Hong Kong has contacted an anti-trafficking NGO pleading for help. He says he is currently detained and being forced to work as a scammer in Myanmar after he was kidnapped in Thailand. The man, 30 year old John, says he has been trapped for three months so far, and “escape is not an option.” John said he…
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Domino’s Japan delivers pizza to summit of Mt. Fuji
A Domino’s Japan delivery driver went to extreme lengths to deliver a pizza to a hungry hiker at the summit of Mt. Fuji, the country’s tallest peak at 3,776 metres. The delivery fee amounted to the equivalent of almost 1,000 baht, which seems modest considering it took the Domino’s guy almost six hours to walk up the active volcano to…
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Thailand lends Cambodia 983 million baht for road project
The Thai Cabinet approved a 983 million baht loan for Cambodia to improve its roads on condition they use construction materials and advisory engineers from Thailand. The Deputy Spokesperson of the PM Office, Trisuree Trisaranakun, reported yesterday that the Cabinet agreed to support Cambodia’s road repair project. The enterprise would improve the NR67 Road, which connects Siem Reap province with…
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Floods wreak havoc on northern India, killing over 30 people
Floods are wreaking havoc on two of India’s northern states, destroying homes and leaving people stranded. Since August 19, at least 32 people in Uttarakhand state and Himachal Pradesh state have been killed in floods and landslides, often due to houses collapsing in the floods. In the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, 27 people have been killed, and six were…
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Tourism Malaysia visits Songkhla and Bangkok to lure Thais
As Thailand has lured more and more Malaysian tourists across the border for short-haul holidays, Malaysia started marketing tourism to Thai people as soon as the borders began to open again after the Covid-19 pandemic. Thailand added more train services across the border at Padang Besar into the country and Malaysia welcomed tours sent by Thai travel agents. Malaysia overtook…
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Cambodia aims for 1 million tourists in 2022, has 740k already
As Southeast Asia reopens and scrambles to attract international tourists, Cambodia has announced triumphant numbers from the Ministry of Tourism, declaring over 740,000 tourists from abroad between January to the end of July this year. The swell of tourists is about 22.5% of the number of travellers pre-pandemic, but a 560% increase over figures for the first half of 2022.…
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UPDATE: 110 Thais on one flight denied entry into South Korea
UPDATE The Thai tourists who were denied entry into South Korea have filed a lawsuit against a tour company who they say is responsible for the whole nightmare. Despite forking out loads of cash for the package ‘holiday,’ 71 Thai tourists were detained at the South Korean border for four days and deported back to Thailand. Yesterday, eight Thais on…
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LGBTQ+ community hail Singapore’s gay sex repeal
The LGBTQ+ community hailed Singapore’s announcement to end the ban on gay sex as “a win for humanity.” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the decision, that the city-state will repeal the law that bans gay sex, on national television last night. The 70 year old PM said they would abolish the law as he believed it “is the right…
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Baldwin deflects blame, expects no charges over gun accident
In a rare interview regarding the tragic gun accident on the set of his film “Rust” which left the cinematographer dead, Alec Baldwin deflected blame and said he didn’t believe anyone would be criminally charged over the incident. The accident happened when a prop gun that Baldwin was to fire toward the camera somehow was loaded with live ammunition which…
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ISIS member involved in plot that killed Americans gets sentenced for life
Justice was served yesterday for one of the bloodthirsty savages of ISIS. The ISIS member, 34 year old former British national El Shafee Elsheikh, had been part of a plot to take hostages, which led to the killings of four Americans in Syria. Those slain included journalist James Foley and aid worker Kayla Mueller. ISIS members notoriously beheaded Foley in…
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