ျပည္ပအိမ္ၿခံေျမသတင္းမ်ား

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced early Monday that the country’s general election will be delayed until October, citing concerns over a resurgent coronavirus. The postponement of the September 19 election until October 17 comes despite New Zealand being one of the most successful countries to curb the pandemic. Ardern insisted she would not move the election date again. The country had gone 102 days without infections spreading in the community until early last week when a cluster was discovered in Auckland. The outbreak has since grown to 30 people and extended beyond the city. The only known cases were travelers quarantined after arriving from abroad. On...

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The coronavirus may not have originated at a Wuhan wet market last year but 1,000 miles away in 2012 — deep in a Chinese mineshaft where workers came down with a mysterious, pneumonia-like illness after being exposed to bats. Virologist Jonathan Latham and molecular biologist Allison Wilson, both of the non-profit Bioscience Resource Project in Ithaca, arrived at their finding after translating a 66-page master’s thesis from the Chinese medical doctor who treated the miners and sent their tissue samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for testing. “The evidence it contains has led us to reconsider everything we thought we knew about the origins of the COVID-19...

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Malaysia has detected a mutation of the Sars-CoV-2 — the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic — that is 10 times more infectious than the original Wuhan strain. Called D614G, this mutation was detected in samples taken from three cases linked to the Sivagangga cluster, and one from the Ulu Tiram Cluster. Compared to other strains, D614G produces more viral copies in the respiratory tract and spreads more efficiently from person to person. D614G, otherwise known as the "G" mutation, first appeared in January and has since become the dominant strain, usurping the original "L" and "S" variants. In a Facebook post, Malaysian Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the...

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HANOI - Vietnam has registered to buy a Russian COVID-19 vaccine, state television reported on Friday, as it fights a new outbreak after going several months with no local cases. Russia said on Wednesday that it would roll out the world's first COVID-19 vaccine within two weeks, rejecting the concerns of experts who said it should not have been approved before completing large-scale trials. "In the meantime, Vietnam will still continue developing the country's own COVID-19 vaccine," state broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) said, citing the Ministry of Health. Vietnam has signed up for 50-150 million doses of the vaccine, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Some will be a "donation" from...

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An opportunity to buy a bonafide megamansion in central London has arisen after a colossal building in the capital—once 18 individual homes—designed by one of London’s most famed architects, hit the market Sunday for a whopping nine-figure sum. The complete terraced row, on the edge of the capital’s leafy Regent’s Park, is asking £185 million (US$242 million). If the property sells for its ask, the transaction will be one of the most expensive in U.K. history, second only to the more than £200 million sale of a 20-bedroom Knightsbridge mansion earlier this year. More: During a Pandemic, Lobbies Set Expectations for How Buildings Tackle Virus...

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To show his deep love and obsession with traditional porcelain dishes and antiques, a Vietnamese man has spent the last 25 years of his life decorating his house with almost 10,000 porcelain plates, bowls and urns. Nguien Van Truong, a retired soldier, first fell in love with porcelain antiques in 1986, a year after being discharged from the army and returning to his home village of Kieu Son, Vinh Phuc province. After starting life afresh as a carpenter and got the chance to paint the table and chairs of a local antique collector who first introduced him to the beauty of traditional porcelain dishes. Truong was so impressed and captivated that he decided to take up the collector...

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More than six months since the first COVID-19 case was reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the world is still struggling to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Universities, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies are scrambling to develop vaccines and treatments, with some slated for production next year. But as people become desperate to return to normal lives, some outlandish claims for cures and prevention have sprung up across the globe. Notably, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that injecting patients with disinfectants might help treat the virus. Asia has had its fair share of politicians, officials and other people propose suspect treatments. Here is a...

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Bintan Lagoon Resort, a popular hotel for Singaporeans located on nearby Bintan island in Indonesia, is ceasing operations after 26 years. Nearly 500 employees at the five-star resort have been laid off, according to Indonesian news outlet Antara News. The resort, which spans 300 ha with a total of 450 rooms, has been losing money for the past two years, and the lack of visitors during the Covid-19 crisis only made matters worse. Bintan Lagoon Resort, on Pasir Panjang beach, is owned by Resort Venture Pte Ltd, a private company incorporated in Singapore. The resort is about a 75 minute ferry ride from Singapore. TODAY sought comment from Bintan Lagoon Resort but the resort...

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Just one week after schools reopened in a northern Georgia school district, more than 800 of its students and staff have been told to quarantine. Last week, the Cherokee County School District, about 44 miles north of Atlanta, told 20 people to quarantine when one 2nd-grader tested positive for the virus after the first day of school. That number grew fast, and as of Monday night, the school has ordered 826 students to quarantine due to possible exposure, according to a list the district created. The 42,000-student district lists about 40 cases in 19 elementary, middle and high schools, but it is unclear if all of those represent positive coronavirus tests or if some are of people who...

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A newly opened highway in China’s Guangdong province has been making news headlines for a very peculiar reason: it’s built around the tiny home who refused to move. China is well-known for its “nail houses”, properties of homeowners who reject compensation from a developer for their demolition, but while most such examples are encountered within new residential complexes, the one we’re featuring today stands in the middle of a highway bridge. Footage released by Chinese media shows the property tightly squeezed between the lanes of the newly opened Haizhuyong Bridge, in the city of Guangzhou. It is located in a pit in the middle of the four-lane road bridge...

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