A senior North Korean diplomat who was acting ambassador to Kuwait told his daughter they were going to defect to the South while pretending to drive her to school, Ryu Hyun-woo told media on Monday.“Come with Mom and Dad to find freedom,” Ryu re...

Britain’s visa centre in North Point was slightly busier than normal on Monday as the first Hong Kong residents walked through its doors to apply for a new British National (Overseas) immigration scheme, even as a member of the city’s Executive C...

● Officials aim to cut down the number of new infections by Lunar New Year under a more aggressive testing approach, so Hong Kong may see at least one lockdown a day● Compulsory testing for residential blocks with a single untraceable case and wo...

Hong Kong officials have threatened the MTR Corporation with fresh sanctions over a signalling blunder that forced the eleventh-hour abortion of a major system upgrade, expressing their “grave disappointment” at further potential delays to the ci...

A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic has visited a provincial disease control centre that had an early hand in managing the outbreak.The WHO investigators arrived in the Hubei provincial capital, Wuha...

Unveiling an annual budget on Monday aimed at reviving an economy that plunged into deepest recorded slump amid the coronavirus pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed doubling health care spending to 2.2 trillion Indian rupees (US$30....

A wild boar was caught in an animal trap and beaten to death on a Hong Kong hillside over the weekend, police suspected as they mounted a search for three men.A witness told officers on Sunday she had encountered two men beating a squealing pig with ...

One of Hong Kong’s largest Taoist temples has for the first time in its 99-year history scrapped the Lunar New Year ritual of burning the inaugural incense stick of the festival, citing the Covid-19 crisis.Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple said on M...

In 1971, a sprawling university campus north of Manila became the site of a student-led uprising as public anger over surging oil prices reached its peak.On February 1, the students and some teaching staff came out in sympathy with striking transport...

The European Union announced progress in its battle to get the vaccine doses promised it by drugs manufacturers, as protesters in several countries staged fresh demonstrations against their governments’ action – or inaction – against the corona...

Seven People’s Liberation Army warplanes and a US reconnaissance aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Sunday, the island’s defence ministry said, as tensions continue to rise across the strait.Five PLA aircraft – a Y-8...

1. Who is Joe Biden? Democratic politician Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States of America having served as the 47th vice-president of the United States under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. Learn more 2. What religion is J...

Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party were detained by the military in an early-morning raid on Monday.The move came after Myanmar’s powerful military, known as the Tatmadaw, triggered concerns about a c...

In a move that could be a sign Beijing’s antitrust probes into big internet platforms have just started, the Chinese government has announced a plan to “enhance and improve” implementation of the country’s antitrust laws as part of a long-ter...

A former managing director of JPMorgan has been found not guilty of bribery after being accused of hiring the son of Kerry Logistics Network’s then chairman as a favour to help win work on the company’s IPO.Catherine Leung Kar-cheung, 52, had ple...

Ten moderate Republican US senators urged President Joe Biden to significantly downsize his sweeping US$1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package to win bipartisan support as Democrats in Congress prepared to push ahead with his plan this week.A top White...

Officials have ordered a partial evacuation and mandatory testing at another large middle-class housing estate in Hong Kong after determining the coronavirus was spreading via a light shaft in one of its buildings.The city confirmed 34 new Covid-19 c...

The influential anti-Donald Trump group Lincoln Project is denouncing one of its co-founders after multiple reports that over several years he sexually harassed young men looking to break into politics.The Lincoln Project in a statement on Sunday cal...

Chinese factory activity expanded at the slowest pace in seven months at the start of 2021, weighed down by falling export orders amid a surging pandemic and rising costs, a business survey showed on Monday. The slowdown in the manufacturing sector u...

Donald Trump announced that a former county prosecutor and a criminal defence lawyer with a background in civil rights work will lead his impeachment defence team, one day after it was revealed that the former president had parted ways with an earlie...

Hong Kong’s pubs and bars may be closed, but a group of public health experts has warned some drinkers are consuming more alcohol than ever amid the coronavirus pandemic, a trend often driven by isolation or boredom.The Hong Kong Alliance for Advoc...

One month into the national roll-out of Covid-19 vaccinations for priority groups, foreigners in China are still confused about how and when they can get vaccinated.With only a few countries approving vaccines from China and other nations, they are a...

A tech hub braided with airports, ports and high-speed rail lines to lure the brains and billions of Asia to Thailand – or a cripplingly expensive white elephant from a government struggling to reset Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy? Nearl...

Retired driver Mak Nam, 63, looked forward to spending less on public transport after Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced early last year that subsidies for elderly residents would be extended to everyone from age 60.“I could save...

Key points:• Myanmar’s military on Monday said it would hold new elections after a year-long state of emergency and return power to the winner.•This followed a coup against Aung San Suu Kyi – whose National League of Democracy won last Novemb...

One selling point for Kuaishou, the Chinese video-sharing app that has turned into Hong Kong’s hottest initial public offering ever, is its eye-popping growth in “live-streaming e-commerce”, a newly popular form of shopping online in China.But ...

Thousands of people, including some neo-Nazis, defied a ban to march on Sunday in Vienna in protest against the curfew and lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.Police had on Saturday announced a ban on the march after around 10,000...

Britain’s Prince William has said racist abuse directed at footballers is “despicable” and said it “must stop now” after Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford became the latest player to be targeted.William, who is the president of the Foot...

AstraZeneca will deliver 30 per cent more coronavirus vaccine doses to the EU than it pledged last week, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday.The company will send 9 million additional doses and “will start deliveries one week...

The Moscow police plan to stifle an opposition protest by clamping down on the centre of the city backfired – not only did the massive demonstration take place, but it was spread throughout a wide swathe of the city.Moscow police always come out st...

Two civilian employees of the Norwegian military were killed and a third one injured in an avalanche on a remote Arctic Ocean island inhabited only by soldiers and researchers of the Nordic country.A statement from the Norwegian Armed Forces said Sun...

Car bombs killed at least 12 people, including seven civilians, in two separate incidents in Turkish-held northern Syria on Sunday, a monitoring group said.The first attack near a cultural centre in the town of Azaz killed seven civilians, including ...

British centenarian Captain Tom Moore, who raised millions of pounds for the health service by walking laps of his garden, has been admitted to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, his daughter said on Sunday.“I wanted to update everybody ...

China has temporarily blocked entry to foreign national travelling from Canada, even those with current residency permits, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said.“In view of the current Covid-19 situation and the need of epidemic prevention and control...

An attack on a hotel in the centre of the Somali capital on Sunday has left more than nine people dead.A suicide car bomb struck the entrance of Hotel Afrik, in the heart of Mogadishu, and was followed by massive gunfire, according to a DPA reporter ...

The Biden administration has a genuine opportunity to achieve a landmark foreign policy agreement and establish permanent peace and stability on the Korean peninsula – by negotiating for complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North ...

Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong has paid tribute to the police force and called on officers to be prepared for new challenges as he described them as “loyal guardians” of the city’s stability and national security.Luo Huining, direc...

China’s top respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan has said he will appear with Anthony Fauci, the US President’s chief medical adviser, at an online forum in March – the first public discussion of the Covid-19 pandemic between the two.Zhong ...

China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi is set to make his first address to an American audience since Joe Biden’s inauguration on Tuesday, with observers expecting him to call for greater dialogue and cooperation between the two sides, and an end to ...

Hong Kong could face a shortage of graduates entering the workforce by 2042 the labour minister said on Sunday, noting a significant 13 per cent drop in the number of children being born in the city.Demand for child care and preschool services was ex...

The third of China’s Type 075 amphibious helicopter assault ship was towed to its new berth on Friday where it will be made ready for launch later in the year, state media reported.The assault vessel was moved to the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Sha...

Local Cathay Pacific aircrew have been asked to switch their British National (Overseas) passports to Hong Kong SAR ones by February 28, after China’s decision to no longer recognise the BN(O) as a travel document or proof of identity.But sources s...

The Senate confirmation hearing for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Joe Biden’s nominee to be US ambassador to the United Nations, provided clues on Washington’s Africa policy and how the new administration will try to counter Chinese influence on the c...

A World Health Organization team has visited the seafood market linked to the earliest Covid-19 cases in Wuhan on the third day of field work in a long-awaited mission to China to investigate the origins of the pandemic.A procession of vehicles carry...

Hong Kong’s financial secretary has rejected suggestions the government should issue bonds to raise funds to cover deficits, warning it could shake the public’s confidence in the soundness of the city’s finances and in turn affect fiscal stabil...

Hilton Valentine, a founding member and original guitarist for the British 60s pop group The Animals, has died at the age of 77, the band’s record label said.“Our deepest sympathies go out to @HiltonValentine’s family and friends on his passing...

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...

Russian police on Sunday detained more than 4,400 people at rallies across the country calling for the release of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the OVD-Info monitoring group said.Hundreds of police officers in riot gear lined the streets of t...