Local activists living overseas, including some on the run from arrest warrants back home, are launching a bid to unite the Hong Kong diaspora and continue their campaign against the city’s government and Beijing.A group of eight, led by fugitive e...

Three more opposition politicians charged in Hong Kong’s largest crackdown to date under the national security law were released from custody on Monday, after a judge upheld a lower court’s decision to grant them bail.But the High Court judge rev...

China’s “godfather of train photography” Wang Fuchun, whose portraits of travellers on China’s railways garnered worldwide fame, died in Beijing on Saturday at the age of 79 from an undisclosed illness. Starting his career as a railway worke...

Every couple of years, there are reports on why Japan’s prime minister refuses to live in the official residence. Last week saw the issue being discussed again in Japanese media, and every time it comes up, so does the same answer: rumours of ghost...

The alleged murder of a 6-year-old boy in China by a 13-year-old has triggered widespread discussions yet again on the age of criminal responsibility. The younger boy, surnamed Wang, went missing in Mianxian township in Shaanxi province on February ...

Coronavirus restrictions were reimposed across much of Italy on Monday, while Ireland and the Netherlands became the latest countries to suspend AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shots over blood clot fears despite the firm and the WHO insisting there is no r...

Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has found that more than half of a sampling of 26 different at-home hair dyes – many of them labelled “natural”, “herbal” or “organic” – contained allergens that can cause scalp irritation, rashes, burn...

An expanding Covid-19 outbreak engulfing Hong Kong’s wealthier neighbourhoods, white-collar workers and expatriate community has now spread to the US consulate, which closed on Monday after two employees became infected.The new infections were reve...

Fighting in Afghanistan will intensify sharply and Taliban militants could threaten major cities unless a Biden administration diplomatic push to end the 20-year conflict yields results in the next two months, according to two senior US commanders.Th...

Beyoncé and Taylor Swift had a historic night at the Grammys, where the top four awards were won by female acts.Swift became the first female performer to win album of the year three times and Beyoncé, with her 28th win, became the most decorated w...

When Singapore’s richest property family invested in a Chinese real estate group, the deal was touted as “game-changing” for its expansion in Asia’s largest economy. Almost a year later, it has instead become a cautionary tale for firms looki...

Hong Kong’s largest teacher organisation has become the latest political group to revoke its membership of the Civil Human Rights Front after reports emerged that the mass protest organiser was being investigated under the national security law.The...

After closing its borders to almost all foreign visitors for over a year, China has floated the idea of allowing international travel ahead of its hosting of the Winter Olympic Games in February 2022.Diplomatic missions on Monday were sent a note and...

They have spent close to two decades buried underground, waiting for the right moment to emerge – before pouring forth by the billions, filling the air with an ear-piercing racket and covering walls and floors from the US east coast to the Midwest....

China’s central bank on Monday injected medium-term loans into the banking system, while keeping the interest rate unchanged for an 11th straight month.The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement it was keeping the rate on 100 billion y...

A senior Beijing official has said he is in Hong Kong for meaningful dialogue on the central government overhaul of the city’s elections system, rather than to simply lay out its terms, but cautioned that discussions must not deviate from the frame...

China is experiencing the most severe sandstorm in a decade as 12 provinces in the northern part of the country are blanketed in yellow sand and dust, according to a notice issued by China’s National Meteorological Centre on Monday.The range of the...

Thousands of women gathered in major cities across Australia on Monday to take part in rallies calling for gender equality and justice for victims of sexual assault.The #March4Justice rallies have been spurred by a recent wave of allegations of sexua...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Matthew Karnitschnig on politico.eu on March 15, 2021.A collapse in support for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats in two regional elections on Sunday si...

China’s economy continued to advance, combined figures for January and February released on Monday showed, although the numbers are difficult to interpret due to the weak comparison base from a coronavirus-hit 2020.Both retail sales and industrial ...

In times of constant change, not only tech start-ups but also NGOs would find it important to innovate.Wofoo Group executive chairman Joseph Lee Chung-tak said he believed charities needed new ideas as much as the corporate sector did.“If we don’...

Myanmar security forces fired on pro-democracy demonstrators on Monday killing two people, witnesses said, a day after dozens of protesters were shot dead and attackers torched several Chinese-financed factories in Yangon – prompting the junta to d...

India is set to propose a law banning cryptocurrencies, fining anyone trading in the country or even holding such digital assets, in a potential blow to millions of investors piling into the red-hot asset class.The bill, one of the world’s strictes...

Before the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong, optometrist Ben Luk Chi-kin wondered why some customers would ask if he sold all-plastic spectacles.He learned the grim answer after large numbers of protesters and activists were arrested – Ho...

In the parable of the stone soup, a man came into a village and asked those living there what their problems were. “We are hungry,” they replied. He told them that he could make delicious soup from a stone. Amazed, they cried that this could be...

China has detected its first case of a highly infectious new variant of Covid-19 in the southern province of Guangdong.The provincial centre for disease control and prevention (CDC) found the variant known as B1525, which was first detected in Nigeri...

Hong Kong property tycoon Gordon Wu Ying-sheung recalls attending a closed-door meeting in Shenzhen on February 28, where top Beijing officials discussed ways to overhaul the city’s elections system.“I was the first to speak,” said the 85-year-...

More than a third of the global arms sold worldwide during the past five years originated in the United States, underscoring its role as the world’s top weapons seller, a Sweden-based research institute said on Monday.The US accounted for 37 per ce...

Threats from China and North Korea will loom large over the Biden administration’s first cabinet-level trip abroad, part of a larger effort to bolster US influence and calm concerns about America’s role in Asia.A senior administration official sa...

The price of cobalt, which is used in batteries for electric vehicles, as well as smartphones, tablets and laptops, has risen by about 65 per cent since January.A tonne of the metal sold for US$53,000 last week on the London Metal Exchange, its highe...

After findings from a government-commissioned public opinion poll of Australians with Chinese heritage were released earlier this month, Melbourne-based media studies scholar Haiqing Yu noticed one question recurring in the community’s discussion o...

Newly vaccinated Massachusetts residents were treated to a mini concert over the weekend when famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma brought out his instrument after getting his second coronavirus shot.A masked-up Ma took a seat along the wall of the observation are...

The husband of the British-Iranian dual national facing new charges a week after finishing a five-year sentence said on Sunday that his wife was a “political bargaining chip” who would be convicted again.Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe appeared before ...

The head of London's Metropolitan Police has said she will not stand down despite calls for her to quit over her force's actions at a vigil in memory of Sarah Everard.Dame Cressida Dick said what happened to the 33-year-old “appals me” and made h...

Security forces have foiled an attempt to kidnap hundreds of schoolboys in northwestern Nigeria, a state official said on Sunday, days after dozens of students were seized in the latest mass abduction.The kidnapping of 39 students on Thursday was the...

The 4th session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) of China held recently made a decision to improve Hong Kong’s electoral system. The purpose is to provide an institutional guarantee for the principle of “patriots governing Hong Kong...

Star Wars fans in Russia have built a giant replica of a spaceship from the spin-off series The Mandalorian and installed it in a park in one of the world’s coldest cities.The model of the Razor Crest – a gunship used by the hit TV show’s myste...

Officials in China’s steelmaking hub have vowed to crack down on illicit emissions after two weeks of heavy smog across northern China.In an emergency municipal meeting on Saturday night, Li Guifu, the vice mayor of Tangshan, a city in Hebei, order...

Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said on Sunday he hopes former President Donald Trump will urge his supporters to get the Covid-19 vaccine and emphasised that pandemic-related restrictions should not be lifted prematurely.I...

Hong Kong could risk a brain drain in the next five years after a new survey found a quarter of the city’s university-educated under-35s were planning on leaving to work elsewhere.The study, which was conducted by one of the city’s biggest youth ...

The Chinese government has made technology and innovation key priorities in its development plans for the next five years, as it strives to build a “Digital China” and overtake the US as the world’s No 1 economy. In this first part of a series ...

The body of a man was found following an avalanche Sunday on Mount Norikura on the border of Nagano and Gifu prefectures in central Japan, with two other people injured, local police said.Five people were caught in the avalanche that occurred around ...

A man drowned while diving in Hong Kong’s Sai Kung on Sunday afternoon.The 59-year-old from Tin Shui Wai had gone to a spot about 10 metres off Tung Lung Chau by boat with his three male friends, all of whom were licensed divers.He and a partner we...

A Chinese white dolphin has been spotted for the first time ever in the Xi River in southern China, 300km (186 miles) from its usual habitat, prompting local authorities to halt all shipping and underwater construction work in the area until the anim...

Ireland suspended the use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on Sunday, following reports of blood clots in adults who received the shot in Norway.“The administration of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca is temporarily deferred from this morning, Su...

China’s ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said concerns over the erosion of Hong Kong’s democracy are “completely unnecessary”.In an opinion piece for the South China Morning Post on Sunday, the ambassador defended an overhaul o...

China’s plan to put back the retirement age will be a gradual process rather than a “one-size-fits-all” approach, a leading government researcher has told state media.The proposal prompted by the county’s ageing population sparked uproar on s...

China is set to step up its plans to integrate civilian and military technology under its drive to modernise the armed forces, according to the latest five-year plan.The development plan, which was unveiled at this month’s meeting of the National P...

A trial to present fresh charges against a British-Iranian woman detained for five years in Iran convened Sunday, her supporters said, casting uncertainty over her future following her release from prison.Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe appeared in court i...