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| - Here are the latest developments from Asia related to the novel coronavirus pandemic: China's top legislature will hold its annual session next month after postponing the meeting for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus outbreak, official news agency Xinhua said. The Communist Party leadership announced in February that it would put off the annual National People's Congress (NPC) for the first time since the Cultural Revolution as the country battled the outbreak, which has since become a pandemic. The rescheduled session on May 22 will be seen as a sign of confidence by the leadership that the country has largely brought its outbreak under control. An Australian mining magnate unveiled a deal to import 10 million coronavirus tests from China to Australia, despite a bitter diplomatic spat between the two countries. Andrew Forrest, head of mining giant Fortescue, said he had used contacts to secure an order for the tests with Chinese genomics firm BGI Group at a significantly lower cost than from rival providers, amid fierce competition. Millions of India's rural migrants, who lost their jobs during the nationwide lockdown, will be allowed to return home with the help of state and territory governments, New Delhi said. Many migrants, penniless and hungry, had walked hundreds of miles on foot from cities to their villages after the lockdown was imposed in late March, while others were stranded in makeshift camps in cities after all interstate public transport was cancelled. The national government said the migrants as well as others including stranded students and tourists, would be allowed to board specially designated interstate buses if they do not exhibit coronavirus symptoms. Asian markets rose again, buoyed by a further easing of coronavirus lockdown measures, though the advances remain capped by concern that the reopenings could spark a second wave of infections. Authorities in the Indonesian capital Jakarta have temporarily closed the operations of some 100 companies found to have defied orders not to do business during the pandemic. More than 500 other firms which are still allowed to operate were issued warnings for breaching health protocols by not enforcing mandatory mask wearing and social distancing, officials said. The Taliban warned they would seek revenge if any of their members currently held by Afghan authorities were to die from the coronavirus. "All sides must understand that if the prisoners... are lost, each one will be asked about and revenge taken upon the cold-hearted enemy," the insurgents said in a statement after Afghan authorities confirmed at least 46 cases of COVID-19 among the country's prison population. The Taliban and the Kabul administration are locked in a bitter standoff over a delayed prisoner swap outlined in a deal between the US and the insurgents in February. Veteran batsman David Warner believes Australia's upcoming limited-overs tour of England will be scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Australians were scheduled to play three one-dayers and three Twenty20 matches against England in July, although changes to the English country cricket season now make that impossible. Meanwhile, state authorities warned Australia's National Rugby League that next month's restarted season could end immediately if players continue to flout lockdown rules. A 76-year-old Vietnamese painter who has spent his life making propaganda art for the Communist government has turned his brush to the coronavirus, designing posters that have popped up across Hanoi. Tran Duy Truc was picked to create the COVID-19-themed work after a contest run by Vietnamese authorities. First there was Corona Kumar, then Covid Marie: parents have taken to naming newborns after the coronavirus, apparently unperturbed by the prospect of their children being forever associated with a deadly pandemic. When Colline Tabesa gave birth to a healthy baby girl in the central Philippine city of Bacolod on April 13, she and the father John Tupas decided to mark the occasion with a show of gratitude. "I wanted her name to remind us that COVID did not only bring us suffering. Despite all of this, a blessing came to us," said 23-year-old Tupas. And so, Covid Marie it was. burs-sr/je/cdw
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