SINGAPORE, May 9 — Companies in Singapore are partially paying the housing costs of employees and even relocating staff to cheaper neighbouring cities, to help them tackle home rents that rose last year at their fastest rate in 15 years.

WASHINGTON, May 9 — One-fifth of Asians living in the United States have concealed aspects of their culture and heritage from people who are not Asian due to various reasons, including for fear of discrimination, reported Sputnik based on a new Pew Research Center poll.

LOS ANGELES, May 9 — The United States will officially put an end to the Covid-19 public health emergency on Thursday (May 11).

LONDON, May 8 — The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and the King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck graced the Malaysian International Pavillion, which was held in conjunction with the 2023 London Craft Week (LCW) today.

ANKARA, May 9 — Regional leaders have condemned an attack on Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) officials delivering humanitarian aid to refugees in Myanmar, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

LONDON, May 6 — King Charles III was anointed and crowned on Saturday in Britain's biggest ceremonial event for seven decades, a sumptuous display of pageantry dating back 1,000 years.

MANILA, May 6 — The Philippines' Bureau of Immigration on Saturday ordered its officers at airports to strictly monitor Filipinos departing for Southeast Asian countries to prevent them from falling victim to human traffickers, reported Xinhua.

HANOI, May 6 — Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) will conduct a comprehensive inspection of TikTok's activities in the country from May 15, given its continuous and regular violations, the ministry announced on Friday (May 5).

PHNOM PENH, May 6 — Cambodia hosted the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games for the first time in 64 years, expressing confidence that the biennial multi-sport event would give a boost to the tourism industry in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era, reported Xinhua.

BANGKOK, May 5 — Thailand welcomed 8.5 million tourists in the first four months of 2023, bringing in tourism receipts of 353.3 billion baht (RM46.49 billion).

JAKARTA, May 5 — Indonesia, as Asean's chairman this year, hopes to establish a strong basis for a long-term vision beyond 2025 with a period of 20 years, or named "Asean 2045 said Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

BANGKOK, May 5 — Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai is scheduled to attend the 42nd Asean Summit from May 9 to May 11 in Labuan Bajo, Indonesia.

DHAKA, May 5 — A 20-member Rohingya team left for Myanmar on Friday via the transboundary Naf River to visit a settlement in Rakhine State prepared for the forcibly displaced nationals under a pilot project.

WASHINGTON, May 4 — International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned on Thursday (May 4) that the world may split into rival economic blocs, at a time when global growth is at a historic low both in the near and medium term, reported Sputnik.

LOS ANGELES, May 5 — Triggered by declines in sales of Mac computers and iPad tablets, Apple closed the second quarter in a row with a decline in turnover, even though iPhone sales were up, reported German news agency dpa.

SYDNEY, May 5 — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday he was frustrated for not yet finding a diplomatic fix over the continued detention of Julian Assange and that he remained concerned about the mental health of WikiLeaks' founder.

JAKARTA, May 5 — Indonesia has for months been quietly engaging Myanmar's pro-democracy shadow government, its ruling junta and ethnic minority armies, its Foreign Minister told Reuters, in an effort to kick-start a peace process as violence intensifies.

BEIJING, May 5 — Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang assured his Russian and Indian counterparts of deepening bilateral ties, promising that 'coordination and cooperation' will only grow stronger, in a show of solidarity with two of China's biggest neighbours.

JAKARTA, May 5 — Indonesia recorded faster than expected economic growth in the January to March quarter, official data showed on Friday, as Southeast Asia's largest economy continues its recovery from the pandemic.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 — Air travel recorded a strong demand growth for March 2023, rising 52.4 per cent in total traffic as measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs compared with March 2022, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said.