Ethiopia’s recent decision to open its telecoms market saw a Chinese-backed bid for a mobile licence lose out to a consortium that had US support, but the east African country is likely to remain an important market for Chinese companies.Last weeke...

Hong Kong’s government is offering to exempt fully vaccinated bankers from the city’s compulsory quarantine, easing the travel restrictions to and from Asia’s financial hub as coronavirus cases ebb.“Senior executives of licensed corporations ...

The organiser of Hong Kong’s annual vigil marking the Tiananmen Square crackdown has lost its final challenge to overturn a police ban of the event over Covid-19 risks.In upholding the force’s decision, an appeal board on Saturday pointed to the ...

Taiwan’s coronavirus outbreak is spreading from its initial hot zones, the island’s health minister warned on Saturday as 493 new local cases were reported.“Cases in counties and cities other than Taipei and New Taipei City are growing and the ...

An unprecedented lottery in Hong Kong with a grand prize of a HK$10.8 million (US$1.4 million) flat to entice people into taking up Covid-19 jabs is encouraging, but quarantine-free travel remains the ultimate perk, city residents have said.Bookings ...

Last week, ultrarunning suffered its deadliest tragedy ever when severe weather killed 21 runners in a long-distance race in northwestern China. Endurance sports have undergone a boom in recent years in China, but some enthusiasts now say the incide...

A cryptocurrency “mine” which was stealing electricity worth thousands of pounds has been uncovered in Britain. Police in the West Midlands region of England said they executed a drugs warrant at an industrial estate in Sandwell, near Birmingham...

Dozens of countries have voiced alarm at reports that World Health Organization leaders knew of sexual abuse allegations against the UN agency’s staff and failed to report them. Fifty-three countries, including the United States, the European Unio...

China says it has made significant progress in improving its military jet engines – a long-standing problem that has hampered its military modernisation programme.State media reported that it has developed a new coating material for turbines that h...

Andy Lam’s cafe in Taipei has been suffering a loss since Taiwan’s Covid-19 crisis took a turn for the worse in the middle of this month. But for five days a week since May 20, the Hongkonger and Taiwan resident has been delivering 70 sets of fr...

Bookings for Covid-19 vaccinations in Hong Kong, especially for the Chinese-made Sinovac jab, have surged significantly on the back of a HK$10.8 million (US$1.4 million) flat lottery offered by tycoons.On Friday, more than 10,500 people reserved Sino...

Vietnam’s Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said on Saturday the country had detected a new variant of the coronavirus, which is a mix of the strains first found in Britain and India, and spreads quickly by air, online newspaper VnExpress reported....

The Philippines has lodged a protest over China’s continuing “illegal presence and activities” near an island in the South China Sea held by the Southeast Asian nation, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.Manila lodged the diplomatic protest ...

A planned meeting of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue leaders in the autumn to discuss how the United States and its allies Australia, Japan and India can fund infrastructure projects is the latest effort towards a Western-led alternative to China’s...

Hong Kong property tycoons on Friday joined forces to hold a grand lottery, dangling a top prize of HK$10.8 million (US$1.4 million) in the world’s costliest housing market as an incentive for hesitant residents to get vaccinated against Covid-19.A...

The résumé of a graduate from a top Chinese university seeking work as a domestic helper has stunned internet users, and is a sign of the increasingly competitive jobs market in China for new graduates. Your Trust Home Service, a Shanghai-based hi...

The number of new coronavirus infections in Britain hit a near two-month high on Friday as the country’s regulators authorised the use of the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. The latest authorisation, which takes the number of vaccines ...

Between 60 and 80 per cent of Japanese people want the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled or postponed, according to four surveys in May. They point to the rising number of Covid-19 cases and the government’s failure to deal with the crisis. An editor...

The stamped metal gate blends in with the row of shops selling fabrics and auto accessories along a narrow street in Sham Shui Po, one of the poorest districts in Hong Kong. But the unmistakable aroma of roasted coffee beans wafting from the entranc...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday the United States and India are united in trying to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic together and Washington wants to make sure it takes action to help India with its current coronavirus crisis.Indian F...

This month three South Korean companies and the Seoul police have had to pull ads and other content after men’s rights groups claimed that “small penis” symbols were used, insulting men.The offending images? Hands with the thumbs and the index ...

Chilling details have emerged about the fatal stabbing of a 13-year-old cheerleader who was found dead in a wooded area in Florida on Mother’s Day.On Thursday, State Attorney for the 7th Circuit R.J. Larizza announced during a news conference that ...

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the challenges faced by the health systems of many countries as they respond to this once-in-a-century event. India, for one, has been struck by a deadly second wave and countries across the world have come to i...

In the fifth instalment of our Tokyo Trail series on key issues surrounding the Olympics, we look at how tourism-reliant businesses that invested heavily in the promise of a Games-inspired boom are faring.When Tokyo was announced as host of the 2020 ...

China has for the first time released data on adverse reactions in recipients of coronavirus vaccines, reporting a very low rate of incidents.The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that among the 265 million doses given ...

A US Senate vote on a wide-ranging bipartisan bill aimed at confronting China was thwarted on Friday by a handful of Republicans who threw up procedural hurdles that forced Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to delay it until early next month.Rep...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday offered his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko support in his stand-off with the West over his handling of the grounding of a passenger plane and the arrest of a dissident journalist.The West has ac...

The remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found at the site of a former residential school for indigenous children, a discovery Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described as heartbreaking on Friday.The children were st...

Coronavirus restrictions have eased for Chinese students waiting to go back to US campuses but some may now face a new challenge to their study plans – their parents’ occupation.Lucy Xu, a 19-year-old, is one such student.She enrolled in an Ameri...

A Canadian lawmaker is temporarily stepping down from some duties and is “seeking assistance” after being caught on camera urinating during parliamentary proceedings, a month after being caught on camera naked during another virtual appearance.�...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Caitlin Emma on politico.com on May 28, 2021.US President Joe Biden has released a US$6 trillion budget request that stitches his most ambitious spending pl...

The United States is barring seafood imports from a Chinese fishing company it says uses forced Indonesian labour on its vessels, the Biden administration announced on Friday.US Customs and Border Protection said it has identified labour abuses on al...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Nicholas Wu on politico.com on May 28, 2021.Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a bill that would form an independent commission to probe the January 6 Cap...

Scientists from a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of Covid-19 say “the clock is ticking” for their work to continue, amid political controversy and stalemate at a meeting of the UN body’s member states this week.Three m...

The WHO’s European director warned on Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t be over until at least 70 per cent of people are vaccinated, while deploring that the vaccine roll-out in Europe is still “too slow”.“The pandemic will be over on...

The foreign ministers of four European countries and China will hold three days of talks from Saturday as a major investment deal between Brussels and Beijing hangs in the balance.Top diplomats from Poland, Serbia, Ireland and Hungary will visit Chin...

The group behind the SolarWinds cyberattack identified late last year is now targeting government agencies, think tanks, consultants, and non-governmental organisations, Microsoft said on Thursday.“This week we observed cyberattacks by the threat a...

A nominee for a senior US Defence Department position has floated the idea of helping Taiwan strengthen its ability to fight an irregular war, an idea seen as a prelude to providing more military support for Taiwan.Cross-strait relations experts base...

“Aim high, so you can achieve high,” was the mantra for Hong Kong climber Ada Tsang Yin-hung in setting the world record this week for the fastest ascent of Mount Everest by a woman. The first woman from Hong Kong to reach the summit of the worl...

Prominent barrister Priscilla Wong Pui-sze has been appointed the new head of Hong Kong’s police watchdog, with observers hoping she will find ways to strengthen its investigatory powers and improve soured relations between the force and the public...

China’s notorious pop fans have caused controversy again after a group of young women attempted to invade the business class cabin of a flight in Beijing to see members of the seven-person boy group Teens in Times.A group of female passengers on an...

China has pledged to keep up strategic communication with North Korea and help the sanctions-hit nation cope with worsening economic problems amid a prolonged nuclear stalemate with the US.Foreign Minister Wang Yi also reaffirmed Beijing’s commitme...

As tensions with Russia simmer, thousands of Nato troops, several warships and dozens of aircraft are taking part in military exercises stretching across the Atlantic, through Europe and into the Black Sea region.The war games, dubbed Steadfast Defen...

A wealthy buyer sharing the same name as the daughter of former financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung’s daughter has snapped up a luxury flat in Hong Kong as house prices approach record highs once again.A flat at the exclusive Regent on the P...

An Australian writer and former Chinese diplomat pleaded not guilty to espionage charges in a 6½-hour trial in Beijing on Thursday, according to one of his lawyers.Yang Hengjun, 56, defended himself and remained calm throughout the hearing in the Be...

Up to 70 per cent of the organic carbon found in the sediment of Asia’s longest river, the Yangtze, could have come from the fine ash produced by burning coal, according to a new study.Researchers said the environmental impact of so much man-made c...

The leading role of China’s top trade negotiator Liu He in talks with the US signalled Beijing’s intention to maintain policy continuity, and stressed the importance of trade in US-China relations, state media and diplomatic observers said.Vice-P...

Belgium on Friday said it will recall its ambassador to South Korea after the envoy’s wife was accused of assaulting two boutique staff in an incident that went viral.Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes ordered ambassador Peter Lescouhier to end...

Japan on Friday marked exactly eight weeks until the July 23 opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games, but the countdown to the largest sporting event in the nation’s history continues to be marred by a torrent of bad news.Amid rumours of a boycott by So...

China’s massive livestock sector is set to snap up millions of tonnes of wheat from the country’s winter harvest that began this month, extending a run of crop-switching in animal feed while further cooling demand for corn imports.Corn imports su...