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BEIJING -- China's capital Beijing no longer requires people that enter supermarkets and commercial buildings to show negative COVID-19 tests on their mobile phones, the city government said in a statement on Tuesday. However, the city still requires negative test results to enter Internet cafes, schools, bars, KTV lounges, indoor gyms and elderly care institutions.   RELATED STORIES China's COVID-19 cases rise, record daily numbers seen in Beijing and other cities Beijing, Shenzhen loosen more COVID-19 curbs as China fine-tunes policy Several Beijing districts shut schools as China COVID-19 cases rise  ...

Keep on reading: Beijing no longer requires COVID-19 test results to enter supermarkets, buildings

  TAITUNG, Taiwan -- Taiwan's air force may be on the front lines of defending against China's daily incursions into the skies near the democratically governed island, but for downtime and to boost morale they have a secret weapon - their own band. Started in 2018, the Taiwan air force's "Tiger Band" is made up of fighter pilots, ground crews and other personnel at the Chihhang air base in Taitung on Taiwan's mountainous and scenic east coast, singing soft rock ballads with an indigenous twist. Taiwan's military helped them produce a slick music video for their biggest hit to date, "Fly into the Sky". It has only had a modest 14,000 views on YouTube so far but has garne...

Keep on reading: Taiwan’s air force band boosts morale, patriotism on the front line

OLONGAPO CITY --- The number of crimes reported in Central Luzon dropped by more than two percent in the last two months, police said. In a report on Dec. 4, the Police Regional Office 3 (PRO3) said it recorded 527 crime incidents, particularly murder, homicide, robbery, theft, physical injury, motorcycle theft, car theft, and rape, from October to November this year. PRO3 said the figure was 2.23 percent lower compared with the 663 crime incidents related to the so-called "eight focus crimes" tallied during the same period last year. Brigadier General Cesar Pasiwen, police regional director, attributed the drop to their intensified anti-criminality operations and the cooper...

Keep on reading: Fewer crimes reported in Central Luzon in the past 2 months

LONDON ---A new Netflix trailer released Monday for an upcoming six-part docuseries on Prince Harry and wife Meghan risked further deepening their feud with his family, with the royal calling life within it a "dirty game". The British royal family is bracing for a potentially highly damaging account of the couple's grievances that led them to quit frontline duties and move to the United States. In the clips, posted on Twitter, Harry accuses the family of using the press to undermine them while one of the couple's supporters calls it a tale of "hatred" and "race". The trailer opens with happy footage from the couple's courtship, engagement and wedding, before Harry says "ever...

Keep on reading: Prince Harry calls life within royal family ‘a dirty game’ in new Netflix series

SAN ANTONIO, Zambales --- Police in this province arrested 34 persons facing various offenses during their weeklong anti-criminality operations. In a report released Monday, Dec. 5, the provincial police said 14 of those arrested from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3 were alleged drug traders. The police also confiscated 8.24 grams of suspected "shabu" (crystal meth) worth P55,998 during the period. The data showed that 16 arrested persons were fugitives, while the other four were involved in illegal gambling. INQ RELATED STORIES 10 crime suspects nabbed in Zambales | Inquirer News 28 nabbed in Zambales operations | Inquirer News lzb...

Keep on reading: 34 crime suspects nabbed in Zambales

ZAMBOANGA CITY, ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR --- Cigarette smuggling is getting to be a lucrative business in this city as the police and the navy report seizing from January to November more than P400 million worth of the smuggled goods. Lieutenant Chester Cabaltera, spokesperson of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao, said the Philippine Navy had turned over to the Bureau of Customs 1,932 master cases of smuggled cigarettes valued at P87.52 million from its operations from March to November this year. A master case contains 50 cartons or 10,000 cigarettes. Most of the brands seized came from Sabah and included Bravo, Commando, Ivana, Astro, Champion, and others not commonly found in th...

Keep on reading: Smuggled cigarettes worth over P400M seized in Zamboanga City this year

MEXICO CITY --- A Mexican judge died Sunday, December 4, after being shot in the violent state of Zacatecas in northern Mexico, according to state government sources. Judge Roberto Elias died Sunday, according to a state government source and social media posts by Arturo Nahle, presiding magistrate of the Zacatecas justice department. Nahle called for peace in Zacatecas. Zacatecas has become one of the most violent regions in Mexico amid disputes between organized crime gangs for control of the state. The head of the National Guard in the state, one of the highest-ranking commanders of Mexico's militarized police force, was killed last month in a confrontation with armed men...

Keep on reading: Mexican judge killed in state of Zacatecas

MANILA - Philippine consumer prices rose more than expected in November, taking the annual increase to a 14-year high of 8 percent, the statistics agency said on Tuesday, exerting more pressure on the central bank to stay on its monetary tightening path. The faster-than-expected increase in November was due to rises in food prices. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast inflation would accelerate to 7.8 percent, while the central bank had forecast a figure of between 7.4 percent-8.2 percent. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the core consumer price index rose 6.5 percent, faster than October's 5.9 percent. The Philippine central bank last month delivered ...

Keep on reading: Philippine inflation leaps to 14-year high in November

MANILA, Philippines --- Two earthquakes rocked Bukidnon on Tuesday morning, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said. In separate bulletins, Phivolcs said a magnitude 4.4 quake jolted Pangantucan at 7:39 a.m. with the epicenter located 13 kilometers northwest of the town and at 7:54 a.m., a quake hit Kalilangan with the epicenter traced four kilometers northwest of the municipality. The tremor in Kalilangan was at Intensity IV, it added. State seismologists noted that the two earthquakes -- both tectonic in origin -- may have caused damage, but aftershocks were not expected. Phivolcs said the Pangantucan temblor was also felt in Talakag, Buki...

Keep on reading: Two earthquakes rattle Bukidnon

TOKYO - The Bank of Japan (BOJ) may abandon its 10-year bond yield cap as early as next year on growing prospects that inflation and wages will overshoot expectations, said Takeo Hoshi, an academic with close ties to incumbent central bank policymakers. The BOJ must maintain ultra-loose policy for the time being to convince the public that it is serious about reflating the economy long enough to generate sustained inflation, said Hoshi, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo. But the central bank must also guard against the risk of inflation well exceeding its expectations, as intensifying labour shortages lift wages not just for part-time but permanent workers, he told ...

Keep on reading: Bank of Japan seen to ditch yield cap next year as inflation perks up

The value of metal production in the Philippines in the three quarters ending September expanded by 29.21 percent to P175.61 billion from P136.21 billion, buoyed by rising metal prices and higher production, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB). "The important factors for this development were the bullish prices of nickel ore and gold paired with the increased mine output of gold, silver, chromite, and iron ore during the period," MGB said in a report. "Overall, there was a remarkable increase in the value of mineral commodities, year-on-year," it added. Nickel ore prices stood at $11.97 per pound, up by 47.21 percent from $8.13 per pound in the same period a year p...

Keep on reading: Philippines’ metal production sustains growth momentum

"Apokaluptein: 16389067" is what artist Jesse Krimes dubbed his prison contraband — a project so off-limits, he had to create it behind bars in secret and smuggle it out.

Kyrie Irving's multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Nike is finished, the sportswear company said Monday, after the basketball megastar became embroiled in an anti-Semitism row. The tie-up, reportedly worth around $11 million to the athlete, was one of the largest in the sporting world, and its dissolution comes as companies increasingly face pressure over the views of their star signings. "Kyrie Irving is no longer a Nike athlete," a spokesman for the company told AFP in a one-line email. The sponsorship deal was thrown into doubt in October after the Brooklyn Nets' point guard posted a link to the film "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America" -- a 2018 film widely...

Keep on reading: Nike splits with NBA star Kyrie Irving after anti-Semitism row

BOGOTA --- At least 34 people died when a landslide buried a bus in northwestern Colombia on Sunday, December 4, the government disaster agency said Monday. The landslide, caused by heavy rain, hit the bus on the road between the villages of Pueblo Rico and Santa Cecilia in Risaralda province -- about 230 km (140 miles) northwest of the capital Bogota -- the national agency for managing risks and disasters (UNGRD) said in a statement. Rescuers are digging through the mud for survivors and authorities said nine people have been rescued alive. One of those was a 7-year-old girl found clinging to her deceased mother, said Risaralda Governor Victor Tamayo. President Gustavo Petr...

Keep on reading: Landslide buries bus in Colombia, killing at least 34

WASHINGTON - U.S. services industry activity unexpectedly picked up in November, with employment rebounding, offering more evidence of underlying momentum in the economy as it braces for an anticipated recession next year. The survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on Monday followed on the heels of news last Friday that the economy continued to create jobs at a solid clip in November, with wage growth accelerating. Consumer spending also rose strongly in October. The flow of strong data raises the risk that the Federal Reserve will continue hiking interest rates and lift its policy rate to a higher level than the recently projected 4.6 percent, where it could stay f...

Keep on reading: U.S. services industry regains steam; factory orders accelerate

Washington,United States --- NASA's Orion spaceship made a close pass of the Moon and used a gravity assist to whip itself back towards Earth on Monday, marking the start of the return journey for the Artemis-1 mission. At its nearest point, the uncrewed capsule flew less than 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the surface, testing maneuvers that will be used during later Artemis missions that return humans to the rocky celestial body. Communication with the capsule was interrupted for 30 minutes when it was behind the far side of the Moon -- an area more cratered than the near side and first seen by humans during the Apollo era, although they didn't land there. The European Service...

Keep on reading: NASA’s Orion spaceship slingshots around Moon, heads for home

Paulo Bento announced he would not be staying on as coach of South Korea after they were eliminated from the World Cup with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Brazil on Monday. "Now I need to think about the future, but I will not be with the Korea team. I am going to rest and then see," the 53-year-old former Portugal coach said after the loss in the last 16. "I have just told the players and the president of the national federation. "This is a decision which I took in September. It was set in stone and today I confirmed it. I have to thank them and am very proud to have been their manager." Bento took over following the 2018 World Cup, succeeding Shin Tae-yong. In Qatar, h...

Keep on reading: Paulo Bento steps down as South Korea coach after World Cup exit

LONDON - British consumer spending ticked up last month at a rate that greatly lagged behind inflation, according to surveys on Tuesday that underscored the pressure on household budgets ahead of the Christmas holidays. Barclaycard said spending on its credit and debit cards rose 3.9 percent year-on-year in November, far behind the annual 11.1 percent increase in consumer prices in October that was the highest reading in 41 years. Some 94 percent of Britons surveyed by Barclaycard said they were concerned about the impact of soaring household energy bills on their personal finances. "Cut-backs are affecting non-essential spending on clothing, department stores and restaurant...

Keep on reading: UK consumer spending fails to keep pace with inflation, surveys show

DOHA---Japan will have much to remember from the World Cup, not least stunning upsets of Germany and Spain in the group stage, but ultimately they fell short of their cherished goal of making the quarter-finals for the first time. The heartbreaking loss on penalties to Croatia on Monday will not entirely erase the memory of beating two former world champions for the first time but another loss in the last 16 will hurt a team who had been looking to make history. The Samurai Blue had been to the first knockout round three times in six trips to the World Cup finals but had never gone any further, a state of affairs coach Hajime Moriyasu had committed his players to rectifying des...

Keep on reading: Japan departs with big wins in World Cup but quarterfinal dream unfulfilled

Japan bids the World Cup farewell after its World Cup last-16 penalty shootout defeat by Croatia on Monday, but the team and its fans left lasting memories that won the Asian nation plenty of plaudits in Qatar and across the watching world.