China defends its

No-fly zone

SEOUL — A North Korean drone briefly entered a no-fly zone surrounding South Korea’s presidential office when it intruded into the South’s airspace last week, Seoul’s military said on Thursday, fuelling criticism over its air defences. The drone was among five North Korean drones that crossed into the South on Dec. 26, prompting South Korea’s military to scramble fighter jets and helicopters. The military was criticised for failing to bring down the drones which flew over the South for hours.

Trade deal

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka will restart gotiations on trade pacts with India, China and Thailand after a four-hear hiatus, an official said on Thursday, as the crisishit country races to seal deals to help it rebuild its economy. The island of 22 million is in the midst of its worst financial crisis in over seven decades, triggered by a severe shortage of foreign exchange that has left the country struggling to pay for fuel, food and medicine.

Disputes

BEIJING/SHANGHAI – China defended on Thursday its handling of its raging COVID-19 outbreak after US President Joe Biden voiced concern and the World Health Organization

(WHO) said Beijing was under-reporting virus deaths.

The WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said on Wednesday that Chinese officials were under-representing data on several fronts, some of the UN agency’s most critical remarks to date.

China scrapped its stringent COVID controls last month after protests against them, abandoning a policy that had shielded its 1.4 billion population from the virus for three years.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokes

Picture: Dominic Lipinski /Pool Photo via AP, File Prince Harry, left, and Prince William stand together during the unveiling of a statue they commissioned of their mother Princess Diana, on what would have been her 60th birthday, in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace, London.