More than 200 bottles of French wine – each one worth more than HK$20,000 (US$2,578) in mainland China – were among the more than HK$10 million worth of goods seized on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island in the latest crackdown on cross-border smuggling...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday urged the Catholic Church to “take responsibility” and release records on indigenous residential schools under its direction, after the discovery of remains of 215 children in unmarked graves. He ...

The Chinese health authorities have approved the emergency use of coronavirus vaccine for children as young as three, according to the producer.On Friday, Yin Weidong, the chief executive officer of the Beijing-based vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, to...

Taiwan reported 38 new Covid-19 deaths on Saturday – its highest single-day total.Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre said 476 new local cases and 35 cases delayed by a reporting backlog had been reported, bringing the total number of cases ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made his first public appearance in about a month, with state media showing him at a party meeting that discussed ways to improve the country’s deteriorating economy.Kim, wearing his signature black Mao suit, said it...

Mike Lo is mad about lucky phone numbers, and loves it when they run in sequence, such as 123456, or include repetitions, like 8887878. At one point, he amassed more than 300 smartphone SIM cards with numbers he fancied, but managed to whittle his h...

Japanese sexual minority groups and their supporters, in a last-ditch effort to get long-sought equality legislation passed before the Tokyo Olympics, submitted requests on Friday to the governing Liberal Democratic Party, whose conservative members ...

Hong Kong’s trade figures rebounded sharply over the past few months and the city should capitalise on the momentum by penetrating the mainland Chinese market and Southeast Asia, its commerce chief said on Saturday.Secretary for Commerce and Econom...

This week, Malaysia’s air force said it had detected “suspicious” activities near the Malaysian-administered Luconia Shoals, in the disputed South China Sea. It said Malaysian interceptors had identified 16 aircraft in formation on Monday and t...

From kitchen utensils to fresh vegetables, Shanghai resident Sun Xuhong shops online because there is a much better selection of imported brands than those found in bricks-and-mortar retailers. The range of choices, coupled with seamless connection ...

Hong Kong has recorded a week-long surge in its vaccination rate, with daily jabs administered nearly doubling to 46,000 on Friday after the government and businesses ramped up campaigning for the city’s inoculation drive. Marking a mixed report c...

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic in March 2020, hospital directors in the United States and Europe knew exactly where they should look to replenish their supply of medical ventilators: Shenz...

Li Fangfang is waiting for a court verdict and an apology. The 33-year-old woman from Hangzhou, in east China’s Zhejiang province, was fired from her government office job in 2020 for having a third child, breaking Chinese government policy at tha...

One person was killed and seven are missing after an accident in a coal mine in central China, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday. The “accidental outburst” occurred at a coal mine run by Henan Hebi Coal and Electricity Company in the l...

When health worker Neelam Kumari knocks on doors in Indian villages the occupants sometimes run out the back, terrified that she wants to vaccinate them against Covid-19. With India’s devastating recent virus surge easing in cities, the deadly pan...

Dang Duong, a 42-year-old restaurant owner in Ho Chi Minh City, is hoping everyone in Vietnam will be able to get vaccinated against Covid-19 soon.Her business has been struggling without its main clientele of foreign residents and tourists since Mar...

The latest push by the US and European Union to cut their reliance on China for rare earth elements could intensify global competition for access to the resources, according to a new study.China dominates the extraction and processing of rare earths ...

Hong Kong confirmed its first local, untraceable Covid-19 infection involving a variant initially identified in Britain, sparking fears of potential border loopholes that could allow mutant strains to trigger the city’s fifth coronavirus wave.A res...

Dai Ching-yuen bought an air conditioner as soon as he saved enough earlier this year, to fend off Hong Kong’s sweltering summer heat. The 56-year-old and his girlfriend, both Hongkongers, live in a 50 sq ft windowless cubicle, one of 10 subdivide...

Malaysia’s bad-boy rapper Namewee has been known to court controversy and come afoul of the law, but for fans of superstar K-pop band Blackpink, he’s gone one step too far with his latest track. The song You Know Who Is My Father? has been descr...

Just the other day, some friends and I were discussing which country has the best comfort food. We couldn’t decide on a dish or a country, but we all agreed that each culture offers its own version to suit specific tastes and needs.The concept of c...

Manufacturers in Guangdong are expecting export orders to slow in the second half of the year, due in part to skyrocketing cargo costs as well as shipping delays caused by the recent coronavirus outbreaks in southern China. Severe congestion at Shen...

China’s Civilian Army by Peter Martin, Oxford University Press Much has been written recently of a new tone of aggression in Chinese diplomacy, which has earned the country’s diplomats the title of “wolf warriors”, after the 2017 Chinese Ram...

Prominent human rights activist Tang Jitian says he feels “helpless” and “deep regret” after being barred from leaving China to care for his daughter, who is seriously ill with tuberculosis meningitis in a Japanese hospital. Tang was stopped...

Starting this week, Chinese netizens have been bombarded with online promotions promising them a share of billions of yuan in shopping subsidies, and offers of refunds if they find a better price on another e-commerce platform. It is all part of “...

A South Korean industrial designer has come up with a satirical solution for “smartphone zombies” who cannot take their eyes away from their screen long enough to stop themselves walking into a wall or other obstacle.Paeng Min-wook, 28, has devel...

Canada’s official opposition party wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to use his time at the G7 Leaders’ Summit to take a stand against China and call for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be moved from Beijing.Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole sent ...

Former White House counsel Donald McGahn was questioned for hours on Friday by House Judiciary Committee Democrats about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Donald Trump, US president at the time, tried to hea...

China’s military aircraft manoeuvre over contested waters off the Malaysian coast is probably aimed at showing its growing ability to assert its territorial claims against those of its neighbours, an observer said.But the two countries are likely t...

In a small corner of San Francisco’s bustling Chinatown, silence fell for a brief moment on Thursday evening as some 200 people gathered to mark 32 years since Beijing’s bloody crackdown of student-led calls for democracy. Leading the moment of ...

Police in Bangladesh have arrested seven suspected members of a sex trafficking gang that used video-sharing app TikTok to contact and lure young women and girls before selling them for sex in neighbouring India, an official said on Friday.A video of...

A white marble skull of Pope Alexander VII, long thought to have been lost, has now been discovered in the Germany city Dresden, where it has been for almost 200 years.The masterpiece by famous Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), which...

The Biden administration said on Friday it has found some concrete solutions in addressing America’s reliance on foreign countries such as China for critical products, but there is not an instant remedy to solve broad supply chain issues.White Hous...

A thick, brown, bubbly foam dubbed “sea snot” has covered the shores of the Sea of Marmara, alarming Istanbul residents and threatening marine life.The naturally occurring mucilage was first documented in Turkey in 2007, when it was also seen in ...

Soon after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted that he had spoken to then US president Donald Trump about Covid-19 last April, he called for the World Health Organization to be given the same powers as weapons inspectors when investigat...

Trade ministers representing the 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) bloc are meeting to discuss the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday, according to the group’s Singapore-based secretariat.The “virtual” meeting will be ...

The Statue of Liberty could be getting some company from her native France.State, local and museum officials on Friday announced a planned partnership between Paris’ Pompidou Centre and New Jersey’s Jersey City to transform a gutted industrial bu...

Facebook on Friday set its ban on former US president Donald Trump for two years, saying he deserved the maximum punishment for violating platform rules over a deadly attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.The two-year ban will be effective from ...

China will publish the results of climate-related stress testing of its financial sector at an undefined point in the future, said central bank chief Yi Gang at a financial conference on Friday.The country has been conducting the review alongside an ...

After months of procedural and political hurdles, the US Senate appears set to finally vote next week on sweeping, bipartisan legislation intended to counter a rising and more assertive China.The US Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 includes bil...

Hongkongers commemorated the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown with scattered pockets of defiance on Friday, shouting pro-independence slogans on the streets, lighting candles and flashing their phone lights in public, or attending church...

The European Union will seal off its skies and runways to Belarusian airlines as of Saturday in response to the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight and detention of a dissident journalist and his girlfriend last month.The 27 countries are obliged �...

What is China’s three-child policy?On May 31, 2021, China’s Communist Party Politburo meeting, chaired by President Xi Jinping, announced it will allow each couple in the country to have up to three children in a marked departure from its previou...

Maria Cheung* had never been to the annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park to remember the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, believing she could always go to the next one. But on Friday night, she decided it was time to act. After finishing work a...

A 36-year-old woman with advanced HIV carried the novel coronavirus for 216 days, during which the virus accumulated more than 30 mutations, a new study has found.The case report, which has not been peer-reviewed, was published as a preprint on medRx...

As the Pentagon prepares its report into UFOs, due later this month, Chinese military researchers have turned to artificial intelligence to track and analyse the increasing number of unknown objects in China’s airspace.To the People’s Liberation ...

FBI Director Christopher Wray told The Wall Street Journal that the agency is investigating about 100 different types of ransomware, many of which trace back to actors in Russia.In the interview published on Friday, Wray singled out Russia as harbour...

Two financing arms of Huawei Technologies Co, which have raised funds for the Chinese telecoms giant by selling dollar bonds to international investors, are among 59 Chinese companies on an investment ban list signed by US President Joe Biden, showin...

More than 1,300 diamonds estimated to be worth HK$25 million have been seized from a truck at a border checkpoint in Hong Kong in the biggest bust of its kind locally.The Shenzhen-bound haul was discovered when the vehicle was selected for inspection...

Hungary’s decision to block a European Union statement criticising China’s Hong Kong policy was condemned on Friday by a senior Germany official, who said the EU’s common foreign and security policy was being undermined by a failure of unanimit...