The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the nuclear weapon ban treaty, is an international law aimed at building a nuclear weapon-free world, and took effect on January 22.However, the treaty is a “paper tiger” because none of...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said protesters that stormed New Delhi’s Red Fort had caused “insult” to the country, his first public comments on a months-long farmers’ agitation that turned violent this week.Tens of thousands ...

Hong Kong residents remain wary of being vaccinated against the coronavirus, with less than a third willing to get the jab, a new survey by hospital pharmacists has found.According to the study, which was released on Sunday, safety, potentially adver...

Police in Russia detained more than 500 protesters on Sunday as activists took to the streets across the country demanding the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.Despite authorities ramping up pressure on the opposition with arrests and ...

The Chinese capital’s bank regulator has ordered an investigation into the illegal use of personal loans to invest in real estate amid growing fears of a property bubble.The Beijing branch of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to...

Australia reopened its “travel bubble” with New Zealand on Sunday after the neighbouring country reported no new locally acquired Covid-19 cases, but added new screening measures as it marked its longest infection-free run since the outbreak bega...

Brazil’s federal government will require winners of an upcoming 5G spectrum auction to build a high security wireless network for its exclusive use, according to an order published late on Friday.The requirement is one of the new guidelines for the...

Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected on Sunday – a victory that makes him the country’s most powerful leader in decades – but his win was overshadowed by a serious coronavirus outbreak in the country.Trong, a...

Malaysian police have opened a murder investigation into the death on Friday of a seven-year-old boy who apparently drowned in a water tub, amid allegations of abuse against his mother and stepfather.The 32-year-old mother and 38-year-old stepfather,...

The first of China’s Hualong One third-generation pressurised water nuclear reactors went into commercial operation on Saturday, according to its developer China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).Construction of the home-grown reactor in Fuqing i...

One in five male sailors serving with China’s submarine force in the South China Sea experience mental health problems, according to new research.The study by Naval Medical University in Shanghai of more than 500 servicemen and officers claims to b...

Even as Malaysia struggles to contain a pandemic that has wrought significant damage on its economy, it now faces a potentially greater fiscal challenge: defending its main cash crop – the oil palm – against European Union efforts to stifle the ...

Pakistan is looking to develop new overland border crossings with China that would potentially boost the allies’ military interoperability against Indian forces in Ladakh and the rest of Kashmir. Proposals floated this month by the government of th...

Germany’s government on Sunday threatened legal action against laboratories failing to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the European Union on schedule, amid tension over delays to deliveries from AstraZeneca.“If it turns out that companies have no...

The extension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between the United States and Russia to 2026 may not only prevent an out-of-control arms race but also gives China an additional five-year buffer period.Chinese military experts and...

Hong Kong has not ruled out subjecting more districts to mandatory coronavirus testing schemes of varying methods and scope in the coming days, the city’s No 2 official said on Sunday, as 53 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed.Writing on his blog, Ch...

The Japanese government is planning to review copyright rules to prevent possible legal violations by costume role players, also known as cosplayers, as the number of people dressing up as animation and game characters in the country continues to gro...

Hong Kong will establish a railways department by 2023 to improve supervision of project delivery and planning by the city’s rail giant, which has been plagued by construction woes, cost overruns and delays over the last three years.But former rail...

Foreign telemedicine companies are finding it difficult to break into mainland China’s health care market, despite abundant opportunities arising from the country’s fragmented health care system, some executives said.While they team up with offsh...

When Singapore’s hawker centres were recognised by the United Nations in December for their cultural significance, street food lovers across the globe had reason to celebrate. After a two-year campaign, the UN’s cultural agency Unesco had finally...

Donald Trump has lost his top impeachment lawyer just days before the former US president’s trial is to begin, a person familiar with his legal strategy confirmed on Saturday night.Butch Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer who was reportedly set to pla...

China’s economy recovery continued in January but at a slower pace, as the resurgence of coronavirus in parts of the country took a toll on business sentiment, led by a sharp drop in service sector morale.The official manufacturing purchasing manag...

Britain will apply to join a massive 11-nation free-trade bloc of Asia-Pacific countries, it announced on Saturday, weeks after leaving the European single market with its departure from the EU.International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will formally re...

Hong Kong families have been weighing whether to move one parent over to Britain with the children while the other stays in the city to earn money as the application process for British National (Overseas) visas was set to open later on Sunday.Some s...

As the Biden administration considers whether it should pull remaining US troops out of Afghanistan in the coming months, some fear for the fate of an American who could be left behind: an abducted contractor believed held by a Taliban-linked militan...

With vaccination programmes being rolled out by countries around the world, it seem the tables have finally turned in the fight against the novel coronavirus.The grim milestones of 100 million infections and 2 million deaths may have been passed, but...

The United States. is backing off for now on a plan to offer Covid-19 vaccinations to the 40 prisoners held at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.Pentagon chief spokesman John Kirby said in a tweet on Saturday that the Defence Department wo...

More than 8,000 residents in the central German city of Goettingen left their homes on Saturday to let disposal experts find and defuse four suspected Second World War bombs in the city centre.Three of the four suspected bombs were 10-ton bombs with ...

China’s “Mighty Dragon” – the J-20 stealth fighter – changed the regional balance of power when it was unveiled 10 years ago and represents a decade of modernisation for the country’s military.Its maiden flight, on January 11, 2011, shock...

People across France showed their displeasure with controversial proposed security legislation on Saturday by gathering in cities nationwide, according to organisers.There were more than 55 such gatherings, they said.According to the Interior Ministr...

New data showing that two Covid-19 vaccines are far less effective in South Africa than in other places they were tested have heightened fears that the coronavirus is quickly finding ways to elude the world’s most powerful tools to contain it.The U...

When reports first emerged last year that China Mobile – the country’s largest state-owned telecoms company – was keen to buy Digicel, the biggest mobile carrier in the Pacific islands, the move was seen as being of serious security concern to ...

A close ally of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged US President Joe Biden to take punitive action against a wider group of associates of President Vladimir Putin, saying current sanctions are not sufficient to stop the Kremlin from...

Sophie, the Grammy-nominated Scottish DJ, producer and recording artist who had worked with the likes of Madonna and Charli XCX, has died following an accident in the Greek capital of Athens. She was 34.In a statement, UK label Transgressive said the...

Activists gathered on Saturday in Paris to support people exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam war, after a French court examined the case of a French-Vietnamese woman who sued 14 companies that produced and sold the powerful defoliant dioxin u...

Custom officials at South Africa’s main international airport have seized hundreds of thousands of tablets of a drug some people claim could be a remedy against coronavirus, police said Saturday.The South African Police Service (SAPS) said in a sta...

Police in southeast England have charged a 53-year-old man with sending a suspicious package to a coronavirus vaccine production site in north Wales earlier this week.A spokesman for Kent Police said Saturday that Anthony Collins has been charged wit...

Israeli researchers said they had found scraps of fabric coloured with a purple dye dating from the eras of King David and King Solomon in the south of the country.“The researchers were surprised to find remnants of woven fabric, a tassel and fibre...

More than 1,400 Rohingya Muslim refugees were relocated to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal on Saturday, despite opposition from human rights groups concerned about the site’s vulnerability to storms and flooding.Including a similar sized group...

Black Lives Matter, a movement that became a rallying cry after the killing by US police of an unarmed black man, has been proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize, a Norwegian MP said Saturday.Founded in the United States in 2013, the movement received an...

United States President Joe Biden’s diplomatic overtures during his first week in office signalled an early effort to rally allies for a collective approach to China, a message that US partners in Asia have appeared more receptive to than those in ...

Hong Kong customs enforcers seized more than 3½ tonnes of illegal drugs worth almost HK$2.2 billion (US$284 million) in 2020, the largest amount in a single year since records began nearly two decades ago, new figures obtained by the Post reveal.Wit...

Cash-strapped Hong Kong Airlines (HKA) has been penalised for breaching the rules of a government coronavirus wage subsidy scheme that provided it HK$154.3 million (US$19.9 million), the operator confirmed on Saturday.The case came to light after a c...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Tyler Pager, Adam Cancryn and Joanne Kenen on politico.com on January 30, 2021.Joe Biden promised he’d bring in a competent, tested team to run the corona...

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday announced plans to grant some foreigners citizenship to this oil-rich nation, part of its efforts to stimulate the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.The UAE, home to the glittering Dubai and Abu Dhabi, previou...

Hong Kong’s homebuyers snapped up 206 new flats, or three of every four units put on the market on Saturday in one of the city’s biggest sales launches, as they sought to park their money in fixed assets amid low interest rates.Nan Fung Group and...

At least four teachers at the English Schools Foundation (ESF), Hong Kong’s biggest international school group, were sacked last year after they travelled overseas without telling management and conducted online classes from abroad.Two sources told...

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a powerful car bombing at a military base in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province that killed at least 14 soldiers on Saturday.The bombing, in the Shirzad district of the province, wounded four other soldi...

Covid-19 travel restrictions are contributing to an expected 10 per cent drop in applications for the next centralised allocation of Primary One places, according to Hong Kong education officials.But parents said on Saturday they remained anxious ove...

The military alliance between Washington and Seoul is expected to be strengthened as the new US administration moves to repair ties with its key ally on the Korean peninsula, amid its rivalry with China and concerns over North Korea.In an early sign ...