Kuala Lumpur: A province in China will issue 500 million yuan (RM330 million) of ang pow to be distributed to non-locals who choose to stay back during Chinese New Year as it tries to contain Covid-19.

CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has lost control of his account on the Chinese-owned social media platform WeChat and a lawmaker on Monday accused China’s leaders of political interference.

BISHKEK: A renowned investigative journalist in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan has been charged with possession of narcotics, police said Sunday, days after he released an investigation into the fuel business of a powerful political family.

LONDON: British minister Nadhim Zahawi (pic) on Sunday urged a probe into claims by a fellow Conservative MP that she lost her ministerial role because of her ‘Muslimness’, piling further pressure on the government.

LOS ANGELES: Emma Thompson’s (pic) naked scene in her new film about an older woman hiring a sex worker was “probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” she told the Sundance film festival Saturday.

HANOI: Vietnamese are paying hundreds of dollars for gold plated tiger models as gifts as Lunar New Year draws near, bucking a major economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.

MYANMAR: A closed military court in Myanmar has sentenced a lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party and a prominent democracy activist to death.

TAIPEI: The sweeping “zero-tolerance” strategy that China has used to keep COVID-19 case numbers low and its economy functioning may, paradoxically, make it harder for the country to exit the pandemic.

SYDNEY: Russia risks becoming embroiled in a “terrible quagmire” if it invades Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned Friday, raising the spectre of a prolonged, bloody and sapping conflict for Moscow.

BEIRUT: The Islamic State group attacked a Kurdish-run jail in northeast Syria, freeing fellow jihadists, a war monitor reported without specifying how many escaped.