The South African government has given Taiwan a deadline of the end of March to relocate the island's de facto embassy outside of the capital city Pretoria, the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said, blaming Chinese pressure for the move.

Taiwan has expressed “grave concerns” about growing pressure from South Africa to downgrade and relocate its de facto embassy from Pretoria, the country’s administrative capital. The island’s foreign ministry confirmed on Monday that the South African government renewed a demand in late January asking the island to move its representative office out of Pretoria by the end of March.

According to the WHO, there are around one billion cases of seasonal influenza each year. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Barbie Hsu, a Taiwanese actress who starred in the popular TV drama “Meteor Garden” that once swept across Asia, has died after contracting pneumonia triggered by the flu

Taiwanese actor Barbie Hsu, who rose to fame across East Asia as the romantic lead in the 2001 television drama "Meteor Garden", has died of influenza aged 48, her sister said on Monday. Familiar by the nickname "Big S",