Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

ALMATY/NUR SULTAN (Reuters) - Police in Kazakhstan detained dozens of opposition supporters on Sunday who took to the streets after the death of an anti-government activist in a detention center.

Activist Dulat Agadil died in a jail cell on Feb. 25, a day after police took him in on charges of contempt of court and insulting a judge. The authorities - including President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev - have said his death was caused by acute cardiovascular failure, ruling out any foul play.

01 Mar 2020; MEMO: Azerbaijan said on Saturday it had closed its border with Iran for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, after the death toll in Iran rose to 43 yesterday, the highest number outside of China.

Iran is at the epicentre of the outbreak in the Middle East, with several countries in the region reporting cases stemming from Iran.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 (NNN-Bernama) — “Thank you everyone.” That was the caption of a video uploaded by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad soon after Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in as the new Malaysian premier Sunday.

‘Don’t be shy,” said his wife, Dr Siti Hasmah when she hugged Dr Mahathir, believed to be in his office at Yayasan Al-Bukhary, Sunday.

The 94-year-old statesman then replied, “Sudahlah” (It’s enough) as he continued hugging his wife after he was requested to do so by those present in his office.

TOKYO, Mar 1 (NNN-NHK) – Thirteen crew members, including seven Chinese nationals, on board a Belize-flagged cargo ship are missing, after the ship collided with a fishing boat, off Japan’s northeastern prefecture of Aomori late Saturday (last night), the Chinese consulate general in Sapporo said today (Sunday).

Guo Xing 1, the 1,989-tonne cargo ship with 14 crew on board, informed the Japanese side after it suffered the collision, at around 10:17 p.m. local time Saturday, about 12 km off the coast of Rokkasho.

KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 1 (NNN-BERNAMA) – Muhyiddin Yassin, a former deputy prime minister, took the oath of office this morning (Sunday), to become Malaysia’s new prime minister.

Muhyiddin was appointed following the abrupt resignation of 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, who had been in office since the general elections in 2018.

TOKYO (AP) — Amid fears about where the next outbreak of a fast-spreading new virus would appear, infections and deaths continued to rise across the globe Sunday, emptying streets of tourists and workers, shaking economies and rewriting the realities of daily life.

Panic-buying of daily necessities emerged in Japan, tourist sites across Asia, Europe and the Mideast were deserted, and governments closed schools and banned big gatherings. Amusement parks have been shuttered and concerts cancelled. In Paris, priests stopped placing sacramental bread in worshippers’ mouths.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia’s 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad lost out in the battle to become prime minister on Saturday as the king named former interior minister Muhyiddin Yassin after a week of political turmoil sparked by Mahathir’s resignation.

The decision could again reshape politics in the Southeast Asian country less than two years after an alliance of Mahathir, and old rival Anwar Ibrahim, 72, swept out the former ruling party that had been tarnished by corruption scandals.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan’s foreign minister on Saturday accused giant neighbor China of waging cyber “war” on the island to disrupt its fight against the coronavirus by using fake news, as the island Beijing claims as its own reported a jump in new cases

The coronavirus outbreak has strained already poor ties between Taipei and Beijing, with Taiwan especially angry at China’s efforts to block its participation at the World Health Organization (WHO).

Beijing, Feb 29 (AFP/PTI) China's manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level on record in February as official data on Saturday confirmed the massive damage the deadly coronavirus epidemic has caused to the world's second-largest economy.

The announcement comes as the epidemic has rapidly spread to a growing number of countries, pushing stock markets to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the coronavirus could wreak havoc on the world economy.

Beijing, Feb 29 (PTI) Forty seven more people have died of the deadly coronavirus, rasing the death toll in the country to 2,835 while the number of confirmed cases climbed to 79,251, Chinese health officials said on Saturday.

China's National Health Commission (NHC) in its daily report on Saturday said it received reports of 427 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection and 47 deaths on Friday.