Goods being shipped into Hong Kong were likely to be delayed by at least three weeks and could potentially cost more as a result of the blockage at the Suez Canal, industry figures warned on Friday.The 200,000 tonnes container ship Ever Given, which ...

The crisis in the Suez Canal could soon hit your instant coffee.The vessel blocking passage in one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints isn’t just curbing shipments of crude oil and liquefied natural gas, but also containers of robu...

Top Hong Kong officials are set to launch a large-scale campaign next week to explain to the city why Beijing is overhauling its electoral system and introducing measures to ensure only patriots can govern locally.Secretary for Constitutional and Mai...

India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine-maker, to meet domestic demand as infections rise, two sources said.The move will also a...

Australia’s ambassador to Beijing has reportedly described China as a “vindictive” and “unreliable” trading partner as Australian officials revealed steep declines in most exports to the nation’s most important market.Ambassador Graham Fl...

A number of major Chinese tech firms have erased the virtual presence of Swedish multinational clothing retailer H&M from their platforms amid a public uproar in China over the brand’s position on the alleged use of forced labour by Xinjiang cotton...

Police have arrested three persons after confiscating more than HK$1.5 million (US$193,000) worth of suspected illegal drugs along with HK$140,000 in cash during a raid on a Hong Kong flat.Officers raided the flat at Leung King Estate in Tuen Mun in ...

1. Who is Vladimir Putin? Vladimir Putin: biography, KGB, family, wealth, power in Russia. Learn more 2. What happened to Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny? Putin critic Alexei Navalny says he is being held in a 'concentration camp'. Learn more ...

Hong Kong has told 14 countries to stop accepting British National (Overseas) passports as a valid travel document for applicants of working holiday visas, in the latest enforcement of countermeasures against London for offering its residents with BN...

A citywide police manhunt for three perpetrators of a knife attack is under way after four men were injured in an illegal gambling den in Hong Kong at daybreak on Friday.The attack spilled over from the Lockhart Road venue onto the streets of Wan Cha...

From a converted storeroom on the roof of his mother’s Seoul flat, Kim Min-kyo plays video games for up to 15 hours a day – and makes a fortune from the thousands of fans watching him.The cramped studio is an unlikely home for a budding millionai...

Beijing has told Washington there have been “new developments” in the Iran nuclear situation and urged it to restart talks on the issue.Chinese foreign vice-minister Ma Zhaoxu’s plea to the US special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, came as Chin...

Deadly heatwaves in South Asia are likely to become more common in the future, with the region’s exposure to lethal heat stress potentially nearly tripling if global warming isn’t curbed, researchers said.But the threat could be halved if the wor...

Some Australian hay suppliers have not received permits to export to China, the Global Times reported late on Thursday citing Chinese industry sources, in the latest escalation of trade tensions between the two countries.In a separate report on Wedne...

Covid-19 restrictions on in-person classes will be further eased to allow as many as two-thirds of pupils to return to schools after Easter, the Hong Kong government has announced, while 11 new coronavirus cases were confirmed citywide on Friday.The ...

Missouri authorities say they believe that human remains first spotted by someone out walking in a state park Thursday afternoon are the body of a Chinese woman who has been missing since October 2019.The skeletal remains, some clothing, a driver’s...

The University of Southern California (USC) has agreed to a US$852 million settlement with more than 700 women who have accused the college’s long-time campus gynaecologist of sexual abuse, the victims’ lawyers and USC announced on Thursday.When ...

China is expected to lead the recovery of East Asian and Pacific economies this year, but many nations will record sub-par growth as they struggle to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, according to new World Bank forecasts released on Friday.The W...

Beijing’s imposition of the national security law and its overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system are restrained measures that will not eliminate the city’s unique strengths or its opposition voices, according to a pro-establishment heavyweigh...

China on Friday announced sanctions on nine individuals and four entities in Britain that it said “maliciously spread lies and disinformation” about Beijing’s actions in Xinjiang, as tensions over its human rights record continued to escalate.T...

Her social media posts are a mix of graphic photos and footage from the unrest back home, protest messages and photos of herself wearing ball gowns. And this week, Myanmar’s Miss Grand International contestant Han Lay made a plea to end the violenc...

A newly empowered Election Committee after Beijing’s drastic overhaul of Hong Kong’s political system is likely to choose members of the legislature from outside as well as within its own ranks and the nomination threshold may be lower than what ...

China will carry out a three-year census of its agricultural germplasm resources as it seeks to reduce its reliance on imports amid heightened national security concerns.Germplasm are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintai...

US President Joe Biden has warned North Korea that the US will “respond accordingly” if it escalates its military testing, after Pyongyang fired two missiles in its first major provocation since he took office.The nuclear-armed North has a long h...

European Union leaders met on Thursday to navigate a common path out of the Covid-19 pandemic as infections surge in many of their countries, seeking agreement on how to ramp up supplies of vaccines after a slow start to immunisations.With distribut...

After making Tomb-Sweeping Day a national holiday in an effort to prevent the erosion of traditional culture over a decade ago, Chinese authorities are now trying to eliminate a major ritual on the day — burning joss paper for the dead.A number of ...

Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe defended Beijing’s Xinjiang policies as he landed in Europe for a weeklong trip as the US tries to rally countries on the continent to its side.In a meeting with Hungarian President Janos Ader on Wednesday, Wei p...

Last year, as thousands of New Zealanders lost their jobs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, real estate agent Shane Robinson – who is based in the country’s seventh-biggest city, Dunedin – was busier than ever.“It was completely unprecedented. I’...

Bangladesh turns 50 this week as an economic success story but also an increasingly repressive de facto one-party state where a cartoon or Facebook post can land you in jail, or worse.ABM Shamsuddin, 66, has been a major beneficiary of the boom. He l...

New York plans to deploy an all-Asian undercover police team and expand community outreach in more than 200 languages to combat a rise in hate crimes against Asians, authorities said on Thursday.“If you are going to commit a hate crime in New York ...

China’s imports of Australian wheat have exploded despite their ongoing political tensions, with Australia’s bumper wheat harvest continuing to plug shortages of the grain from other key markets. Purchases of wheat by China from Australia over th...

Claims by Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers that the electronic serial numbers of her phones were sent to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation by a Canadian police officer as part of a covert investigation were based on “speculation and surmise” and sho...

The United States said on Thursday it is giving US$15 million to vulnerable Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic, a sharp reversal from the Trump administration which cut off almost all aid to t...

US President Joe Biden pledged on Thursday to prevent China from becoming the world’s “leading” and “wealthiest” country by continuing to close ranks with allies and boosting America’s investment in technology. Casting America’s competi...

Canada has tightened foreign investment rules to protect the security of critical mineral supply chains, a government official said on Thursday, ahead of an expected surge in demand for metals used to make electric vehicles.The move comes as the US ...

A Vincent van Gogh painting of a Paris street scene, held in a private collection for more than a century, sold for €14 million (US$16.5 million) at auction on Thursday.Auction house Sotheby’s had set an estimated value of between €5 million (U...

The suspected gunman in the Boulder supermarket shooting that killed 10 people appeared in court on Thursday for the first time, and a defence lawyer immediately asked for an assessment of his mental health.Kathryn Herold, the lawyer for suspect Ahma...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Catherine Boudreau on politico.com on March 25, 2021.Legislation aimed at tackling America’s plastic waste has ignited a messaging war between makers of ...

The level of defects in the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Hong Kong is not particularly high, according to local experts, who point out countries overseas have not suspended their inoculation programmes despite packaging faults also being found in a s...

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is in great pain, his lawyer said on Thursday after visiting him in prison, adding that allies feared for his life.“He is suffering from strong back pain and pain in his right leg,” lawyer Olga Mikhailova said...

New York-listed Chinese tech firms could soon face a tough decision to leave the US after the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission started implementing a Trump-era law, dashing hopes that tensions between the Washington and Beijing might th...

Despite calls for boycotts on social media, Chinese customers were in a dilemma over whether to buy products from H&M, Nike and other brands that had expressed concern about the alleged use of forced labour to produce Xinjiang cotton.Some loyal fans ...

Malaysia’s parliament is suspended, a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has yet to abate, and there is no indication that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will press ahead with his previously stated plans to hold an election once the ongoing state...

European companies in China are facing an increasingly politicised business environment, a leading trade group said on Thursday.“On the one side, public opinion in Europe is demanding that companies demonstrate clear and transparent corporate socia...

Shanghai has become the first Chinese mainland city to offer Covid-19 vaccines to foreign expats, local authorities have revealed.Foreigners who meet the age requirements can voluntarily apply for the vaccine from Monday.The Shanghai municipal govern...

Internet giant Tencent Holdings has removed two Burberry-designed “skins”, outfits worn by video game characters, from its popular title Honour of Kings on the grounds that the British fashion house refuses to buy cotton produced in the Xinjiang ...

An opposition district councillor in Hong Kong has been unseated after a judge found he violated an election rule during his 2019 campaign by failing to obtain written consent from two people whose support he claimed.The High Court on Thursday furthe...

Construction of a cave to house a relocated sewage treatment plant in Hong Kong will start this year to free up around 28 hectares of land for housing and other uses on the existing site.Briefing the media on moving Sha Tin Sewage Treatment Works, Di...

A team of Chinese marine scientists have found and cultivated a previously unknown bacterial species that, unlike others, feeds on DNA, the building block of life.In a paper published in the peer-reviewed ISME Journal this month, researchers said und...