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Supporters of the Hanwha Eagles during a match in Seoul earlier this month (Photo: AFP/Anthony Wallace) - 

South Korean baseball fans and football supporters will be allowed to cheer at stadiums for the first time in two years from Friday (Apr 22) as the country drops almost all coronavirus restrictions.

Baseball is the most popular spectator sport in South Korea and the games are a chance for fans to let loose, fuelled by liberal supplies of alcohol and fried chicken.

Since the pandemic however spectators were supposed to watch the games in relative quiet and wear a face mask - if they were allowed to attend at all - and chicken and beer were available only for consumption out of sight of the field.

The Korea Baseball Organization later started allowing eating at most stadiums and on Friday announced the lifting of the ban on cheering, chanting and shouting.

Spectators will still be required to wear masks.

"Starting today, cheering will be allowed at all stadiums where KBO League games are held," the league said in a statement, adding that "chanting while eating will be prohibited".

Hours later, the K League professional football told AFP that it was also lifting restrictions, starting this weekend - "But cheering is not actively encouraged".

Seoul said last week it will lift almost all social distancing measures, except for the mask mandate, citing a dramatic fall in reported cases of COVID-19 after an Omicron-fuelled surge.

More than 86 per cent of the South Korean population of 51 million has been fully vaccinated, with the majority also receiving a booster shot.

Around 21,000 people in South Korea have died from the coronavirus - a 0.13 percent fatality rate, one of the world's lowest//CNA

FILE PHOTO: A tourist wears a face mask to prevent spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during sunset near the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, Jan 7, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Chalinee Thirasupa) - 

Thailand will from next month remove a requirement for arrivals vaccinated against COVID-19 to undergo a test and brief quarantine on arrival, an official said on Friday (Apr 22), the latest measure to revive its battered tourism industry.

Visitors are encouraged to perform antigen self-tests during their stay, instead of the current "Test & Go" scheme, where arrivals must isolate in a hotel while awaiting the result of a test on arrival.

The new measure follows the removal last month of a pre-departure test requirement.

"Adjusting measures has an impact on drawing in tourism receipts," Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson for the coronavirus task force, told a news conference.

Tourism is a crucial driver of the economy in Thailand, one of Asia's most popular holiday destinations, representing about 12 per cent of gross domestic product before the pandemic, when visitor numbers hit a record high.

Although Thailand is seeing a pickup in tourism, numbers are still down sharply from that level, with 210,800 arrivals in March, up from 6,700 in the same period last year, but far short of the monthly average of 3.3 million in 2019.

Still required for visitors, however, is online travel clearance for which proof of vaccination and insurance must be presented. The "Thailand Pass" has long been a source of frustration over the time taken to be granted approval.

Other rules eased on Friday include reducing the required insurance coverage to US$10,000 and granting entry to unvaccinated visitors, providing they show a negative pre-departure polymerase chain reaction (PCR) result//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Smoke billows over a plastics factory in New Taipei City, Taiwan March 20, 2017.REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/ - 

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday (Apr 22) the government will focus on research and development in green energy, smart grids and energy storage equipment in its push to cut carbon emissions.

"Long-term carbon reduction relies on new technologies to produce more breakthroughs," Tsai said at a sustainability forum to mark Earth Day.

"Taiwan's industries are export-oriented. We need to break into the global green supply chain," she added.

Taiwan said last year it intended to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and the government has pledged to spend NT$900 billion (US$30.7 billion) by 2030 towards that end.

This week, the Cabinet approved a draft amendment of climate legislation that includes the 2050 net-zero goal and the introduction of a carbon pricing scheme.

Tsai said that by 2050, renewable energy should account for more than 60 per cent of Taiwan's power supply, while hydrogen should account for around 10 per cent and thermal power generation with carbon capture around 20 per cent.

By comparison, in 2020, coal provided 45 per cent of Taiwan's electricity while liquefied natural gas provided around 36 per cent, government data shows.

Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer and a major Apple supplier, said on Friday it also aims to have net-zero emissions by 2050 and plans to use "at least 50 per cent green power" by 2030//CNA

Palestinian protestors clash with Israeli security forces at the compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City Apr 22, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad) - 

At least 31 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Friday (Apr 22), Palestinian medics said, the latest outbreak in a recent upsurge of violence at a site revered by Muslims and Jews alike.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service, 14 Palestinians were taken to the hospital, two with serious injuries.

Israeli police said its forces intervened when hundreds of people began hurling rocks and fireworks and drew close to the Western Wall, where Jewish worship was under way.

Reuters witnesses said police entered the compound after the morning prayers and fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at a crowd of about 200 Palestinians, some of whom were throwing rocks. Police also fired rubber bullets from a close range at a group of journalists documenting the clashes, the witnesses said.

Violence at the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has surged over the past week, raising concerns about a slide back into the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Since March, Israeli forces have killed at least 29 Palestinians in West Bank raids, according to the Palestinian health ministry, and a series of deadly Arab street attacks have killed 14 people in Israel, Israeli police and medics said.

Tensions this year have been heightened in part by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coinciding with the Jewish celebration of Passover, which brings more Muslim and Jewish visitors to the compound.

Palestinians accuse Israel of not doing enough to enforce a long-standing ban on Jewish worship at the third holiest site in Islam and see such visits as a provocation. Israel rejects this accusation.

As in previous years, Israel is halting Jewish visits during the final days of Ramadan, starting Friday, an Israeli official said. Traditionally, Muslim attendance at the compound increases during the final days of the fasting month.

Al-Aqsa compound sits atop the Old City plateau of East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move that has not won international recognition.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a state they seek to establish in the occupied West Bank and Gaza//CNA