Guarded by police and soldiers, authorities in Myanmar disturbed the grave of a 19-year-old woman who became an icon of the anti-coup protest movement after she was shot dead wearing a T-shirt that read “Everything will be OK”, a witness and loca...

Topless waiters, a local authority refusing to have staff work overtime so couples can marry on a supposedly auspicious day for weddings, and a company whose name suggests it doesn’t like to work are just some of the quirky stories making the news ...

Pope Francis extended his hand to the world’s Shiite Muslims on Saturday, meeting top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in a landmark moment in modern religious history.The two elderly, respected men of religion met at Sistani’s humble home in t...

The coronavirus pandemic is putting girls from ethnic minorities in Hong Kong and Britain at greater risk of being forced into marriage. This story is part of a series on women’s issues in China and Asia to coincide with International Women’s Day...

The world’s hopes for curbing climate change hinge on action by two giant nations whose relations are deteriorating: China and the United States. The two countries both say they are intent on retooling their economies to burn less climate-wrecking ...

There will still be room for moderate opposition voices once Beijing has completed its overhaul of Hong Kong’s political system, a former minister from the city has said after a meeting with Vice-Premier Han Zheng.Speaking after a two-hour session ...

The gap between China’s military and its regional counterparts is widening, with Beijing announcing a 6.8 per cent rise in defence spending on Friday that observers say will stoke concerns among its neighbours.While the budget increase is just 0.2 ...

Mexico’s government has walled off the presidential palace with a metallic barrier ahead of a planned women’s march on Monday to protest rampant violence against women and the president’s support for a gubernatorial candidate accused of rape.Ba...

Hong Kong’s second batch of Sinovac vaccines will arrive within the month, the city’s health minister has said, while health authorities on Saturday revealed a chronically ill woman who had received the Covid-19 drug died days later after sufferi...

Seven days after Myanmar’s military staged a coup to bring down its elected government, street protests opposing the junta began in earnest across most parts of the country including Myitkyina, capital of the resource-rich Kachin state that borders...

At China’s biggest annual political gathering, known as the “two sessions”, policymakers revealed intentions to build a “Digital China” with clearer boundaries for how and when mainland tech companies can use the massive amounts of data the...

Eleven opposition figures granted bail in the city’s largest national security law crackdown to date will remain behind bars for as long as a week, after a judge said she needed more time to consider prosecutors’ request to reject their temporary...

Memorial services held online. Zen meditation apps. Buddhist temple-led matchmaking services.As the coronavirus pandemic forces institutions around the world to change the way they do things, those new endeavours are some of the ways that Buddhist gr...

Hundreds of secondary school pupils are taking full advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to expand their business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit.More than 60 student-led companies have created and built products to sell to the public, many of whi...

A new wave of female Thai entrepreneurs are introducing more culturally sensitive and eco-friendly feminine hygiene products to the kingdom, tearing down taboos in the process. This story is part of a series on women’s issues in China and Asia to c...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Caitlin Oprysko on politico.com on March 5, 2021.A Trump Commerce Department official has been jailed since November on federal charges of receiving and pos...

Surveying the flowers scattered all over the sprung floor of his empty 7,000 sq ft dance studio alone, Singaporean Tim Russ Fernandez picks up some chrysanthemums to make a floral arrangement.The 41-year-old, founder of the Russ Dance Factory in Hong...

More than 20,000 American organisations have been compromised through a back door installed via recently patched flaws in Microsoft’s email software, a person familiar with the US government’s response said on Friday.The hacking has already reach...

China has announced five-year targets towards achieving its carbon neutrality and environment protection goals, but critics say they do not go far enough.In a speech at the opening session of the national legislature on Friday, Premier Li Keqiang ple...

“It’s a world of lawlessness,” Reverend Kim Dal-sung muttered over the phone as he drove his tiny KIA over narrow dirt paths zigzagging through greenhouses made of plastic sheets and tubes.In the bleak landscape of dull blue and grey in Pocheon...

With China’s annual parliamentary meetings known as the Two Sessions in full swing, Southeast Asian countries are keeping a close eye on what Beijing says about its economic goals, including its “dual circulation” strategy that focuses on domes...

International Women’s Day, on March 8, celebrates women worldwide. It’s also a time to reflect on what we have achieved and how far we still have to go.Even as the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines gathers pace here in Hong Kong, we are seeing the de...

The US is extending exclusions on tariffs for face masks, cleaning supplies and other personal protective equipment from China for six months, providing protection against higher costs as the nation fights the Covid-19 pandemic.The move affects 99 di...

Beijing’s plans to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral systems have caught the city’s opposition and pro-establishment figures by surprise, in different ways.To some pro-Beijing analysts, the drastic changes – including adding 300 “patriotic vot...

This story about gender discrimination against job seekers is part of a series of stories on women’s issues in China and Asia to coincide with International Women’s Day.How many boyfriends have you had? That is the latest question to join as th...

Thai households can now grow six pots of cannabis each to supplement their income, the nation’s health minister said, as the first country in the region to legalise medical marijuana further eased rules to promote the crop’s commercial use.Famili...

Beijing’s plan to change Hong Kong’s electoral system is a “direct attack” on its autonomy and democratic processes, the US State Department said on Friday, adding that Washington was intent on “galvanising collective action” against Chin...

The Mars rover Perseverance has successfully conducted its first test drive on the red planet, the US space agency Nasa said Friday.The six-wheeled rover travelled about 6.5 metres (21.3 feet) in 33 minutes on Thursday, Nasa said.It drove four metres...

China has for the first time unveiled an ambitious road map for its plans to transform into a world-leading power by 2035.Technology innovation and scientific research are key to the Vision 2035 development strategy, unveiled soon after Premier Li Ke...

At least 20 people were killed and 30 wounded by a suicide car bomb just outside a restaurant near the port in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu late on Friday, an emergency services official said.The blast sent plumes of smoke into the sky and triggered...

The coronavirus pandemic has led to Italy seeing its highest annual death toll since World War II, as the statistics office ISTAT announced on Friday that it had recorded 746,146 deaths in 2020.That is 15 per cent more than the average recorded for t...

Myanmar security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to break up a protest in Yangon on Saturday, just hours after a United Nations special envoy called on the Security Council to take action against the ruling junta for the killings of protester...

Antivirus software entrepreneur John McAfee was indicted on fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges alleging that he and cohorts made over US$13 million by fooling investors zealous over the emerging cryptocurrency market, authorities said on F...

The US Senate unanimously approved a bill to tighten controls on Chinese-funded cultural centres on university campuses known as Confucius Institutes, the latest in a series of efforts to crack down on the centres lawmakers accuse of being propaganda...

A middle-aged man admitted to Kwong Wah Hospital’s accident and emergency department was found dead on a stretcher in a waiting area last week, Hong Kong authorities revealed on Friday, adding that the incident would be investigated.According to th...

World Health Organization officials on Friday said the risk of an Ebola outbreak spreading from Guinea to its neighbours was “very high”, and that some neighbouring countries were not prepared for outbreaks or for future vaccination campaigns.WHO...

Artificial intelligence and quantum information are among the seven key areas China has identified as priorities for development as it seeks to become a global leader in the scientific field by 2035.Integrated circuits, brain sciences, genetics and b...

The European Union has called on Beijing to “carefully consider the political and economic implications of any decision to reform the electoral system of Hong Kong”, warning it is “ready to take additional steps in response to any further serio...

A prominent transgender entrepreneur in Malaysia has received death threats after a video emerged that purportedly showed her renouncing Islam.The video, which has gone viral, appears to show Muhammad Sajjad Kamaruz Zaman, 35, popularly known as Nur ...

When a British politician asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson in parliament on Wednesday if he would apologise for the forced deportation of hundreds, maybe thousands of Chinese seamen from Liverpool after World War II, his response was evasive.Labour...

Singapore will increase penalties for some sex crimes, officials said on Friday, after an outcry over students at elite universities who had made attacks on women, but were given punishments that were criticised as too lenient.Last year, a dentist...

China unveiled on Friday a comprehensive plan to upgrade its manufacturing capabilities by 2025 via eight priority areas, sharpening its global competitiveness amid a broad trade and tech dispute with the United States.The plan, which was introduced ...

Pope Francis landed in war-battered Iraq on Friday on a first-ever papal visit, defying security fears and the pandemic to comfort one of the world’s oldest and most persecuted Christian communities.The 84-year-old, who said he was travelling to Ir...

China will maintain its strict border controls throughout this year to keep out Covid-19, the top economic planning agency said on Friday.This came as the government said the pandemic was still serious, and a leading health expert said herd immunity...

Friday’s highlights as thousands of National People’s Congress (NPC) deputies and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) members converge on Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for China’s largest annual political event.K...

Hongkongers holding the new British National (Overseas) visa could be given financial help from public funds if they are in extreme poverty after moving to the country, under a modified immigration policy described as “generous” and which takes e...

The century-old underground reservoir discovered in Bishop Hill last year has been proposed to be listed as a grade one historic building by the government, the highest grade in Hong Kong’s rating system for the preservation of heritage structures....

A Hong Kong couple accused of murdering their five-year-old daughter told investigators she “would hurt herself” when they were being questioned while rescuers tried to save the child.The High Court heard the little girl, who was found with multi...

China’s decision to revive its decades-long tradition of setting an economic growth target for 2021 is seen as a vote of confidence in its continued recovery from the effects of the coronavirus, but the low bar suggests focus has started to pivot b...

A “democratic electoral system with Hong Kong characteristics” is what Beijing is aiming for in its proposed overhaul of the city’s electoral systems, and the central government hopes the imminent changes will stop opposition activists from usi...