Singapore on Friday announced that it would take a calibrated approach in its reopening as it battles a slight uptick in domestic cases of Covid-19.The city state eased some social distancing measures on Monday, allowing social gatherings of five peo...

Five men accused of attacking protesters and commuters at a Hong Kong railway station in 2019 have been convicted of rioting and wounding offences, but a sixth defendant was cleared of wrongdoing in one of the most shocking outbreaks of violence dur...

A male pig in China that became a symbol of hope in the aftermath of the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake died on Wednesday at the age of 14, according to the museum that looked after the animal.The museum said the pig died peacefully of “exhaus...

Hong Kong police on Friday charged the publisher and the editor-in-chief of the Apple Daily tabloid with conspiring to collude with external elements under the national security law, according to a source, in the first such case to be brought over ar...

A government adviser and senior counsel on Friday assured Hong Kong residents that buying a copy of Apple Daily would not violate the national security law, a day after police arrested five of the tabloid’s senior executives for allegedly colluding...

After months cooped up in coronavirus-hit Manila, Tanya Mariano fled the Philippine capital to work from the beach, joining a growing number of digital nomads helping a devastated tourism industry stay afloat.A ban on foreign holidaymakers entering t...

Banished at the start of the pandemic, the handshake is making something of a comeback, thanks to vaccinations and the lifting of social restrictions – but “pressing the flesh” faces an uncertain future.More than speeches or communiques, one of...

Seven Chinese air force warplanes flew into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Thursday – just two days after the PLA sent a record 28 planes to the island’s ADIZ.Observers said the latest fly-by – which involved two newer-model J-16...

Iranian voters went to the polls on Friday in a presidential election likely to be won by a judge fiercely loyal to the religious establishment.With uncertainty surrounding Iran’s efforts to revive its 2015 nuclear deal, and growing poverty at home...

Former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker Tanya Chan and an ex-colleague from the Civic Party have been found not guilty of breaking social-distancing rules at a gathering held at a bar last year.Chan, 49, and party colleague Gordon Lam Sui-wa, 36, were a...

Hong Kong police arrested the editor-in-chief, publisher and three other senior executives of Apple Daily in a Thursday morning raid on suspicion of breaching Article 29 of the national security law which bans collusion with foreign forces.Officers a...

An extremist group like al-Qaeda may be able to regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the US homeland within two years of the American military’s withdrawal from the country, the Pentagon’s top leaders warned.It was the most specific pub...

Hongkongers will begin receiving the first instalment of their HK$5,000 in cash vouchers by August 1 and be given at least five months to spend them on public transport, retail shopping and restaurant meals in the city, financial secretary Paul Chan ...

Propaganda banners and billboards have proliferated across China in recent weeks as the ruling Communist Party prepares to celebrate its 100th birthday on July 1.Large boards with a red-emblazoned “100” and the hammer and sickle emblem hang above...

A huge diamond weighing 1,098 carats, which could be the third-largest mined in history, has been discovered in the southern African country of Botswana.The high-quality gemstone was unearthed earlier this month in the Jwaneng mine owned by Debswana,...

Lai Chi-wai hopes everyone can scale new heights like he does, even though that could mean surmounting countless walls or odds emerging ahead of them.In a wheelchair, the avid climber urged his fellow Hongkongers to follow their dreams, noting that a...

China should build a national surveillance system to monitor coronavirus variants, one of the country’s top virologists has said as he warned the world to prepare to live with Covid-19 in the long term.There should also be a globally recognised sta...

People who are seeking a little adventure in one of China’s hottest tourist destinations may soon have to foot the bill if they get into an emergency.The local government of Huangshan, which is the jumping-off point for people visiting the Yellow M...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said his country needs to prepare for “both dialogue and confrontation” with the United States under President Joe Biden, state media reported on Friday.At a plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruli...

Businesses are finding ways to navigate through a more complicated regulatory environment in mainland China and Hong Kong, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced all kinds of activities online, according to experts on Thursday at the South China Morning Pos...

The arrests of the editor-in-chief, publisher and three other executives of Apple Daily have dealt a severe blow to Hong Kong’s freewheeling media scene and could encourage self-censorship among reporters for fear of flouting the national security ...

This is the fourth in a series about China’s plans to reopen its borders amid the Covid-19 pandemic. In this instalment, Zhuang Pinghui looks into the status of China’s approvals of foreign vaccines.Of the 845,000 foreigners living in mainland Ch...

Beijing should remain calm in the face of a new EU-US trade and technology pact to overcome competition from China, as the interests between Washington and Brussels are still misaligned, according to experts.“The transatlantic tech council may fost...

The Supreme Court, though increasingly conservative in make-up, rejected the latest major Republican-led effort to kill the national health care law known as “Obamacare” on Thursday, preserving insurance coverage for millions of Americans.The jus...

A plan by the Group of Seven (G7) nations to counter Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative has been welcomed by countries in China’s immediate orbit of influence, but will need to overcome doubts about Western commitment to emerging market projects....

The US government on Thursday denounced Hong Kong’s arrest of the editor-in-chief, publisher and three other executives of local newspaper Apple Daily on charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and external elements. State Departmen...

The UN General Assembly will on Friday vote on a non-binding resolution condemning the military junta in Myanmar and calling on member states to curb the “flow of arms” into the country, diplomats said.The vote will come on the same day that the ...

China said it “regrets” Japan’s decision to complain to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over anti-dumping duties that it has been placing on stainless steel products since July 2019.Japan’s government confirmed last week that it had compla...

The United States will use its global clout and alliances to strengthen Taiwan’s defence, international presence and economy, including its vital semiconductor industry, against China, US administration officials told Congress on Thursday.Washingto...

An American journalist detained in Myanmar since May appeared on Thursday in a special court, his employers said, where he faces charges under a law that criminalises encouraging dissent against the military.Danny Fenster, managing editor of the Fron...

Highly contagious coronavirus variants are fuelling a surge in infections in Africa, the World Health Organization warned on Thursday, while in Europe more governments eased their pandemic restrictions.France savoured a fresh sense of freedom as peop...

The White House has signalled that direct talks between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping may be on the way, a potential first meeting between the two heads of state as Washington’s relationship with Beijing continues to spiral d...

A European state financial institution is ready to refinance US$809 million of Montenegro’s debt to China, allowing the tiny Adriatic republic to make savings and cut interest rates, the country’s finance minister said on Thursday.China sees the ...

Prosecutors in the trial of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday called for a six-month jail term over campaign finance violations for his 2012 re-election bid.At the end of proceedings in Paris, they issued withering criticism of the ...

A public inquiry into a mass attack at a 2017 Ariana Grande concert in northwest England concluded on Thursday that “serious shortcomings” by venue operators, security staff and police helped a suicide bomber who killed 22 people carry out his �...

[Sponsored Article] The rapid development of financial technology, also known as FinTech, in recent years has transformed how people use financial services. On the one hand, the increasing use of automation in banking services has brought with it gr...

[Sponsored Article] “It’s not who I am underneath, it’s what I do that defines me,” so says the titular hero from the 2005 blockbuster, Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale as the billionaire caped crusader. Instead of the hero Batman, a g...

[Sponsored Article] The days of running businesses solely for profit are long gone. Businesses, large or small, must make considerable efforts to be socially responsible and eco-friendly. A past survey shows that 91 percent of global consumers expec...

[Sponsored Article] It’s been a bad year for tourism and a boom in the travel and hospitality sector would no doubt be good for the economy. However, it could also be a nightmare for people living and working amid the flux of transient tourists. I...

[Sponsored Article] A native Australian who lived and worked in Asia for over 30 years, Prof. Paul Kitney has forged an illustrious career in economics and finance and thrived through bears and bulls. Now, this globetrotting investment strategist...

Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s founding president and liberation hero, has died, aged 97, at a military hospital in Lusaka where he was being treated for pneumonia, his son Kambarage said on Wednesday.Kaunda ruled Zambia from 1964, when the southern Afri...

One of China’s most outspoken diplomats said the country’s Wolf Warrior diplomacy was a “justified defence” against Western criticism and that the world had to get used to China’s new diplomatic style.Lu Shaye, the Chinese envoy to France, ...

The leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Edwin Poots, faced a major revolt on Thursday just weeks after taking charge as he defied an overwhelming party vote and nominated a new head of the regional government.He appointed ...

The United States on Thursday designated Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in the country, as a federal holiday, with President Joe Biden urging Americans “to learn from our history.”Most US states recognise Juneteenth as a holiday or co...

Former president Laurent Gbagbo was returning to Ivory Coast on Thursday for the first time in nearly a decade, after he was cleared of crimes against humanity and his once-bitter rival welcomed him back in the name of reconciliation.Gbagbo left the ...

Chinese researchers have published a new paper rejecting accusations of forced labour in Xinjiang’s cotton industry, citing increased mechanisation and high earnings.A paper published in December by German researcher Adrian Zenz analysed Chinese go...

A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the trial of a former University of Tennessee scientist after the jury deadlocked over whether he had hidden his work in China to defraud Nasa.Hu Anming, 52, was an engineering professor at Tennessee w...

Dozens of turtles and dolphins were killed by intense heat and chemical poisoning from a Singapore-registered container ship that burned for almost two weeks off Sri Lanka, authorities said Thursday.The MV X-Press Pearl, which sank on Thursday, had b...

Economists say China is better positioned than it was in the past to handle “external challenges”, after the US Federal Reserve overhauled its economic and monetary policy predictions in its just-concluded policy meeting.The Fed’s so-called dot...