Dispatchers week

This image, provided by YG Entertainment on Tuesday, shows a teaser for BLACKPINK member Rose’s upcoming solo album. YG Entertainment via The Korea Herald/Asia News Network SEOUL — BLACKPINK member Rose, known as the main vocalist of the four-piece K-pop girl group, will be releasing her debut solo album next week, her agency said Tuesday. YG Entertainment shared two teaser images for her upcoming album, showing the date “March 12, 2021.” It did not elaborate on the title and tracks of the album. The album release comes more than one month after the BLACKPINK member first performed one of the songs for the album, “Gone,” in the act’s first online concert in late January. A 33-second snippet of the song has separately earned more than 44 million views on BLACKPINK’s YouTube channel, reflecting fans’ excitement for the solo project. With the debut, Rose is expected to be the second BLACKPINK member to release solo material. Jennie was the first member to go solo with her debut ... » Learn More about Blackpink’s Rose to drop solo album next week

Voter registration in Metro Manila and Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal will remain suspended this week due to the extended enhanced community quarantine, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Sunday. Voter registration in other parts of the country will resume on April 5. Local election officer offices will receive applications every Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Comelec targets to register at least 4.1 million new voters for the May 9, 2022 elections. Registration will end on Sept. 30. —Dona Pazzibugan For more news about the novel coronavirus click here. What you need to know about Coronavirus. The Inquirer Foundation supports our healthcare frontliners and is still accepting cash donations to be deposited at Banco de Oro (BDO) current account #007960018860 or donate through PayMaya using this link . ... » Learn More about Voter registration in Metro Manila still suspended

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo thinks that the attempt of an official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to drag her into a recent controversy — about whether “lugaw,” or rice porridge, is an essential item that can be delivered during curfew hours — could serve as a reminder for the government to hire people based on job qualifications and not politics. “I don’t want to waste time on that,” she said in Filipino on Sunday during her weekly radio show, “BISErbisyong LENI”, on AM radio station DZXL. Neither she nor program anchor Ely Saludar identified the DILG official, but they were obviously referring to Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III. Densing reacted to a viral video showing a barangay official blocking the delivery of lugaw during curfew, saying that it was “not essential.” In his reaction, Densing was quoted as saying that “lugaw” was not essential — an allusion to Robredo, which he admitted. READ: Shading VP Leni? DILG’s ... » Learn More about DILG exec’s ‘lugaw’ remark a reminder to base hiring on capability not politics – Robredo

A staff member places a full-scale model of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on a table ahead of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing on February 18, 2021 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) WASHINGTON — NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter could make its first flight over the Red Planet as soon as Monday, the US space agency reported, following a delay of more than a week due to a possible technical issue. The mini-helicopter’s trip will mark the first-ever powered, controlled flight on another planet, and will help NASA reap invaluable data about the conditions on Mars. “NASA is targeting no earlier than Monday, April 19, for the first flight of its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter,” the space agency reported Saturday. Data will return to Earth “a few hours following the autonomous flight,” which would take off at approximately 3:30 am, NASA said. Ingenuity’s first trip was initially set for last Sunday, but was ... » Learn More about NASA’s Mars copter flight could happen as soon as Monday

Director Steven Soderbergh of “The Knick” speaks during HBO’s portion of the 2014 Television Critics Association Cable Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, California July 10, 2014. Image: Reuters/Kevork Djansezian LOS ANGELES  — The Oscars ceremony next week will have the look and feel of a movie, giving winners more time for speeches, while coronavirus masks will play a major role, producers of the show said on Saturday. The coronavirus pandemic and a trio of new producers have led to a reinvention of the traditional show where the world’s highest movie honors are handed out before a seated theater audience of more than 4,000 A-list stars and industry executives. Much of the April 25 ceremony will instead be held at the Art Deco Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, where a stage is being built and where presenters will be doing more than opening an envelope with the winner’s name. “It’s not going to be like anything that’s been done before,” director Steven Soderbergh, who ... » Learn More about Oscars show reinvented as a movie — with masks, longer speeches

DUBAI (AFP) - The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan made crossover visits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this weekend, after it was revealed the Gulf nation has been mediating between the hostile neighbours. "Good to be in the #UAE," Pakistan's Shah Mahmood Qureshi tweeted late Saturday (April 17), after announcing a three-day trip which ends Monday. His Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited the emirate of Abu Dhabi on Sunday, a spokesman for New Delhi's ministry of external affairs tweeted. Pakistan's foreign ministry said there was no scheduled meeting between the two ministers. Islamabad suspended trade and diplomatic ties with India in 2019 after New Delhi revoked the special status of the part of divided Kashmir that it rules. But in February, Islamabad and New Delhi pledged to end all firing along the disputed frontier, after months of violence between the nuclear-armed rivals. Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE's envoy to Washington, ... » Learn More about Pakistan and Indian FMs in crossover visits to UAE

SINGAPORE - A 39-year-old Indonesian was the lone locally transmitted case of Covid-19 confirmed here on Sunday (April 18). He tested preliminarily positive for the B117 strain, which is reportedly more contagious. The man is a crew member on board a bunker tanker and had not disembarked from the vessel except to go for Covid-19 testing and vaccination, said the Ministry of Health (MOH). He did not show any symptoms and was detected when he was tested on April 15 as part of rostered routine testing. The man's pooled test result came back positive the next day and he was conveyed in an ambulance to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. An individual test done on April 16 came back positive for Covid-19 infection the next day. His earlier tests from rostered routine testing - the last one being on April 1 - had all been negative. His serological test result has come back negative, indicating this is likely a current infection. While he has tested ... » Learn More about Indonesian man is sole Covid-19 community case in S’pore, tests preliminarily positive for B117 strain

PETALING JAYA: There needs to be a quicker rollout of and an assurance that there will be adequate supply of the Covid-19 vaccine, says the Alliance For Safe Community. Its chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye this includes taking more efforts to build trust and confidence in the use of the vaccine. He also said more effective communication is needed to get people to register for it. "There should be a clearer communication strategy and implementation from the government –instead of just leaving it to the respective departments and agencies. "We cannot over-emphasise the fact that no one is safe until everyone is safe," he said in a statement on Sunday (April 18). He said while those who have been fully vaccinated can still be infected with the virus, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah's statement that the severity of the virus is considerably reduced among those who have already received their doses should convince everybody that vaccinations are the way to go ... » Learn More about More efforts needed to ensure quicker Covid-19 vaccine rollout, says NGO

PETALING JAYA: Even if it does not completely eliminate the chances of contracting Covid-19, vaccination will at least reduce the severity of any such infection, say health experts. Universiti Malaya professor of epidemiology and public health Prof Dr Sanjay Rampal said there was only a small number of vaccinated individuals who were infected out of the many healthcare workers who got the jab. “Many healthcare workers were vaccinated in phase one and it is encouraging that it appears that only nine (fully vaccinated personnel) were infected, with milder symptoms. “Following vaccination, the risk of infection and its complications decreases, but the risk will not be reduced to zero, ” he added. This may be the case for the next few years, as the high global incidence makes new mutations more likely and may reduce the vaccines’ effectiveness, said Dr Sanjay. “The risk of infection will persist in the coming years. However, the vaccines should help us in the short term by ... » Learn More about ‘Vaccine is not bulletproof’

As a result, many fans of the country and people working in Thailand's tourism industry have been hoping vaccinated travellers would soon be returning to the country. In March, Phuket presented plans according to which vaccinated travellers might be allowed to holiday on the island quarantine-free from July onwards. However the future of these plans is now uncertain in light of rising infection numbers and renewed restrictions in mid-April. There is a bit of a panic in the country at the moment. Thai authorities have ordered the closure of bars, schools and entertainment venues in an effort to curb the latest coronavirus outbreak, which has led to record numbers of new daily infections. Officials say the latest outbreak, which includes the more contagious variant of the virus first discovered in Britain, started spreading in nightclubs in Bangkok. Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson for the government's coronavirus task force, announced that the new measures also include a ... » Learn More about Hopes of mid-2021 Thailand getaways dim under renewed restrictions