Indonesia refuses entry to 118 foreigners, including Singaporeans, to prevent coronavirus spread
Indonesia has refused entry to 118 foreigners, including two from Singapore, in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The measure was applied from Feb 5 to 23 at all immigration gates across the country, said Mr Arvin Gumilang, the spokesperson for Indonesia's immigration office, in a statement on Sunday.
"Among the reasons for the refusal were that the foreigners had stayed or transited in mainland China for 14 days," Mr Arvin said.
Earlier on Feb 8, Indonesia's Foreign Ministry had raised its travel alert level for Singapore to yellow, which meant that Indonesians were to take extra precautions when they visit the Republic.
Italy battles 'explosion' of coronavirus cases as third patient dies
Italy raced on Sunday to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, sealing off the worst affected towns and banning public events in much of the north as a third patient died of the illness.
Authorities in the wealthy regions of Lombardy and Veneto, which are the focal point of the flare-up, ordered schools and universities to close for at least a week, shut museums and cinemas and called off the last two days of the Venice Carnival.
The civil protection unit said the number of cases of the highly contagious virus totalled 152, all but three of them coming to light since Friday.
22 years on, old friends pick Mahathir over Anwar again
It was the worst kept secret in Malaysia. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad never wanted to hand the reins over to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as agreed by Pakatan Harapan (PH) months before Malaysia's first ever change of government in May 2018.
But it was a necessary deal to muster the broad support needed to oust then premier Najib Razak, who had lost the favour of the widely influential Tun Mahathir after the 1MDB scandal began plaguing the once dominant Umno since 2015.
With that mission accomplished, and the ink barely dry on his appointment as Prime Minister, Malaysians instinctively began asking if Dr Mahathir would fulfil his promise to step down in favour of Mr Anwar.
Al-Qaeda confirms death of AQAP leader Qassim Al-Raymi
Al- Qaeda has confirmed the death of Qassim al-Raymi, the leader of Islamist group al- Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Site Intelligence Group reported on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that the United States had killed al-Raymi in a counterterrorism operation in Yemen.
The United States regards AQAP as one of the deadliest branches of the al- Qaeda network founded by Osama bin Laden.
Merkel's party punished in state vote, far-right AfD faces parliament exit
Voters in the German city of Hamburg punished Angela Merkel's conservatives on Sunday, pushing them into third place in their first electoral test since the chancellor's protegee gave up her hopes of taking the top job.
Exit polls also indicated that four days after a racist gunman killed 11 people in the western town of Hanau, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) would be ejected from the Hamburg parliament, falling just short of the 5% threshold needed.
Exit polls for public broadcaster ZDF put the SPD, who share power with the conservatives at the federal level, at 38%, down about 7 points from 2015 but still the strongest party in Hamburg, traditionally a centre-left stronghold.
