The Philippines - an important crew change hub in Asia - has banned foreign seamen from 35 countries from disembarking at its ports. It follows similar moves made by the authorities in China, South Korea, France and Singapore.

The promising boy band brings a bit of Mephistophelian glamour to their latest music video with their their first full album under the name Devil.

Brazil has begun its COVID-19 vaccine rollout on Sunday with doses developed by Chinese producer Sinovac, soon after the regulatory approval for its emergency use, bringing relief amid a surge in cases.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has recently received delivery of a type of newly developed all-terrain vehicle for logistics support missions in plateau regions with altitudes higher than 5,000 meters.

TOKYO (Sputnik) - The Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan is set to declare high alert over the spread of the UK strain of the coronavirus, which was recently found in people with no record of travelling to the United Kingdom, the public broadcaster NHK reported on Tuesday.

China's economy is expected to sharply rise in 2021 despite the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, but will still face persistent challenges, figures from the country's statistics bureau revealed. The news comes as strict lockdown measures proved effective in the mainland but troubles continue to affect Europe and North America markets.

The song will be released as a part of his “2021 PROJECT : Season”

India has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use – Oxford/AstraZeneca’s “Covishield” manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and “Covaxin” by Bharat Biotech. The pan-India vaccination drive started on 16 January, and within two days a total of 224,301 beneficiaries have been vaccinated and are being monitored through the “CoWin” app.

Earlier in January, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying warned that the US will pay a "heavy price" for its threats to censure Chinese officials over the arrest of Hong Kong activists detained on charges of subversion and national security law violations.

This is not the first time the tiny nation located in the western Pacific Ocean has made critical remarks about Beijing. Last month, Ngerulmud seized a Chinese vessel, which it suspected of illegally fishing in its territorial waters.

SEOUL (Sputnik) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that the nation would likely achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus disease under the government immunisation program by November of this year.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The cumulative death toll from the earthquake on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and floods in the province of South Kalimantan has grown to 96, while around 70,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, the Xinhua news agency reported on Monday, citing the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB).

BEIJING (Sputnik) - China’s GDP growth slowed down to a record low of 2.3 percent in 2020, the lowest value in the past 40 years, amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

The drama, starring Bollywood superstar Saif Ali Khan, was released on January 15 on Amazon Prime Videos. Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, it's come under fire for allegedly "hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindus."

The world's tallest statue – the Statue of Unity in India's Gujarat state – stands at 182 metres tall. The colossal monument is of Sardar Vallab Bhai Patel, first deputy prime minister of independent India. He helped unite 562 princely states with a major part of the former British Raj to form the Union of India.

As a soloist the popular entertainer has finally returned, over three years since his first solo release.

BANGKOK (Sputnik) - Indonesian authorities have yet to locate the second black box from the Srijiwaya Air plane that crashed in the water off Jakarta last week, the National Search and Rescue Agency's operations director, Bambang Suryo Aji, said Sunday.

The first COVID-19 cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019 and were officially found to have originated from a wet market there. Most scientists believed it was transmitted naturally from animals to humans, yet some fed into the theory, fueled by the US, that it may have leaked accidentally from the Wuhan lab.

India, Australia, and South Korea have been invited as guest countries at the Group of Seven (G7) summit 2021 to be held in June in Cornwall. It will unite leading democratic economies – UK, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, Italy, the US – and the European Union, to "help the world build back better from coronavirus."

Starship Entertainment's rookie boy band is getting ready for the release of their third branded mini-album.