Rescuers searched for dozens of people missing in remote islands of southeast Indonesia on Tuesday while expecting more casualties in the aftermath of a tropical cyclone that has killed at least 128.Helicopters were deployed to aid the search for sur...

Details of last week’s Beijing-imposed overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system must be interpreted alongside the national security law, the city’s civil service chief told colleagues just days after the changes were approved, saying they forme...

US climate envoy John Kerry is in New Delhi this week to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to boost its climate ambitions as it considers announcing a net-zero target ahead of a virtual summit later this month.The visit comes ahead of ...

As hospitals in the Philippine capital reach capacity from a new surge of coronavirus cases, increasingly desperate Filipinos are stocking up on oxygen tanks and touting unapproved medications amid fears the health care system may collapse.Daily infe...

World Bank president David Malpass said on Monday he expects China, the United States and other Group of 20 (G20) major economies to extend a freeze in bilateral debt service payments until the end of 2021 when they meet this week.The G20 Debt Servic...

A man who allegedly threw rocks at an Asian woman and her 6-year-old son in the Los Angeles area was charged with a hate crime on Monday, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Asian-Americans.Roger Janke, 28, faces several charges, including vi...

With Monday’s inauguration of former intelligence agent Pham Minh Chinh as Vietnam’s new prime minister, political analysts said they were shocked by the dark horse candidate’s ascent but expected only subtle changes in governance. “Only a sm...

A report by a French television channel alleging “clandestine” luxury dinners in Paris despite the pandemic has sparked an investigation and public furore over claims the nation’s political elite were brazenly ignoring rules they themselves had...

At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels wit...

Hong Kong confirmed seven more Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, three of them locally transmitted and the remainder imported, amid calls for officials to consider banning flights from high-risk countries to protect the city against coronavirus variants.Wit...

Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, a Rohingya Muslim refugee and activist who fled persecution and ethnic strife in Myanmar, has called Malaysia home for nearly three decades.Now, it’s more like a prison.Zafar, 51, has not left his home on the outskirts of K...

Donald Trump is back on Twitter. Well, sort of.The former US president made a guest appearance on Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller’s Twitter Monday in a photo of the two taken in Trump’s new Mar-a-Lago office.Just had a terrific meeting with P...

When it comes to achieving “financial freedom” – the ability to maintain a desirable lifestyle without having to work – only London is more expensive than Hong Kong, according to data compiled by online property portal Juwai IQI. Based on Juw...

A recovery in China’s services sector picked up speed in March as firms hired more workers and business optimism surged, although inflationary pressures remained, a private sector survey showed on Tuesday.The Caixin/Markit services purchasing manag...

Indonesia’s ambitious US$33 billion project to build a new capital in Borneo is facing a wave of criticism after an initial design for the new state palace revealed that it will be surrounded by the wings of a giant Garuda statue, the mythological ...

New Zealand will allow quarantine-free visits by Australians from April 19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday, creating a “travel bubble” for the neighbouring nations which have closed borders to the rest of the world to eradicate Cov...

With global attention fixed on the escalating crisis in Myanmar, the anti-government movement in neighbouring Thailand has quietened as charges pile up against activists and street rallies lose steam following heavy-handed police actions.While mass d...

Unquestioning obedience is not in my DNA, culture or journalistic training. It is not the way of the typical Hongkonger, either; generally, they are open-minded and unafraid to criticise.Therein lies the problem with Beijing’s efforts to silence fa...

Ma Yuting has been in a tussle with an education company for three months. She prepaid more than 15,000 yuan (US$2,300) in 2019 for her then eight-year-old daughter to have 360 sessions online to practise English with teachers in the Philippines. But...

This is the first of a two-part special examining the debate around the flagship of the Kowloon arts hub and what it means for Hong Kong. Former Hong Kong lawmaker Sin Chung-kai remembers the elation that greeted the news that M+, a unique new museum...

A high-powered defence team has been assembled for the Chinese billionaire Sun Dawu,who was detained along with several members of his family and other senior managers from his company last November on charges of taking illegal deposits and disturbin...

Japan will deploy the F-35B stealth fighter aircraft for the first time from 2024, a decision strongly influenced by the perceived threat posed by China’s military to Japanese territory in the East China Sea. Sources told the Yomiuri newspaper tha...

Asian-Americans and community activists rallied on Monday outside a New York courthouse where a man charged with assaulting a 65-year-old Filipino woman in a hate crime was due to face his first hearing before a Manhattan Criminal Court judge.Police ...

Steam and lava spurted on Monday from a new fissure at an Icelandic volcano that began erupting last month, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of hikers who had come to see the spectacle.The new fissure, first spotted by a sightseeing helicopter, w...

China has presented itself as an alternative to the United States in rallying Middle East countries to help counter international criticism, notably over human rights in Xinjiang, according to observers.Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s tour of the region...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Connor O’Brien on politico.com on April 5, 2021.A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging Pentagon leaders to be more exacting in approving commanders’ ...

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been moved to a sick ward with symptoms of a respiratory illness and has been tested for the coronavirus, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Monday, after he said he had a high temperature and cough.Navalny, a...

Jordan’s Prince Hamzeh pledged loyalty to the king as the monarch accepted mediation over a rift within the royal family that saw the prince placed under house arrest, the palace said.The government has accused Hamzeh, an ex-crown prince and half-b...

Perhaps no gloomier assessment of the China-US relationship can be made than to note that, were it to sink yet another notch or two, there would be no relationship at all. Like a Japanese garden so minimalist that removing one stone might vitiate its...

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that she is working with G20 countries to agree on a global corporate minimum tax rate and pledged that restoring US multilateral leadership would strengthen the global economy and advance US interest...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Japan against sanctioning China over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, ahead of a high-level meeting between Tokyo and Washington.Wang and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi, had a...

Britain’s slow but steady march out of a 3½-month lockdown remains on track even as coronavirus cases surge elsewhere in Europe, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday, as he confirmed that businesses from barbers to bookstores will be a...

Last month, in the wake of the killing of six Asian women at a spa in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States woke up to the hostility Asian-Americans have lived with since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. As people grappled with the shocking surge i...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday gave final approval to legislation allowing him to hold office for two additional six-year terms, giving himself the possibility to stay in power until 2036.The 68-year-old Russian leader, who has already be...

The question of making it illegal for voters to cast blank ballots to protest against Beijing’s drastic overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system has become the subject of escalating debate, but the city’s biggest opposition party said on Monday...

Malaysia’s Court of Appeal on Monday began hearing a bid by former prime minister Najib Razak to set aside his conviction on corruption charges in a case linked to a multibillion-dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB.Najib, 67, who was voted out in 201...

China and the United States have sailed aircraft carriers into contentious waters in the East and South China seas, the latest maritime contest between the strategic rivals at a time of heightened tensions in the region.Analysts say their naval prese...

In a testy message to the Chinese embassy on Monday, Manila warned it would file diplomatic protests for every day that Beijing’s maritime militia ships continued to linger near the Whitsun Reef, which sits within the Philippines’ exclusive econo...

Two Hong Kong police officers have been arrested and suspended from their duties over suspected misconduct after they were accused of replacing the missing necklace and earrings of an arrested woman with newly bought jewellery. The woman from Vietnam...

The new powers given to Hong Kong’s national security police to vet all election hopefuls are unprecedented and have raised questions about their reach and how those who wield them will ultimately be held to account.Pro-Beijing heavyweights have co...

Israel’s legal and political dramas converged on Monday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced court in his corruption trial while his bid to form a government after another inconclusive election reached a critical phase.The 71-year-old veteran...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on Southeast Asian nations to be on the alert for external forces interfering in Myanmar as the military junta faces rising international pressure.Wrapping up his week-long series of meetings with his count...

Five fugitives sent back to Hong Kong last month after serving prison sentences in mainland China for illegally crossing the border will remain behind bars after a magistrate remanded them in custody over local charges stemming from 2019’s anti-gov...

More than 11,000 people took the BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus when distribution resumed on Monday following a nearly two-week suspension due to packaging problems. About 5,200 residents received their first dose, while another 6,500 took ...

Turkey on Monday detained 10 retired admirals after they openly criticised a canal project dear to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a country where the hint of military insubordination raises the spectre of past coups.The official approval last mont...

Taiwan’s defence ministry has reported a new incursion into the island’s air defence identification zone by China’s air force, made up of eight fighter jets and two other aircraft, one of which flew through the strategic Bashi Channel.Taiwan ha...

Brunei, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), on Monday threw its support behind a regional leaders’ meeting to discuss developments in Myanmar, and says it has asked officials to prepare for a meeting in Jakarta.Indonesi...

The defence and foreign ministers of Japan and Germany are to hold their first “2 plus 2” discussions in mid-April, with security and the concept of a “free and open Indo-Pacific” heading the agenda.  The Yomiuri newspaper’s Monday report...

Malaysia said on Monday that it had accepted an increase of nearly 14 per cent in the estimated construction cost for the proposed East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, as the length of the route would be slightly l...

Stressed by family matters back home, Suliana Kasim Dapok acted out by stepping on her Singapore employer’s one-and-half-year old son and pushing him to the floor after he vomited on the carpet. The 42-year-old’s actions were captured on a close...