It was a gilt-edged gift to Communist propaganda: a village led by a Party visionary who transformed farmers into millionaires while tacking close to China's collectivist ideals. But Huaxi's success story has soured, sunk by a pernicious brew of n...

US air strikes against Iran-backed armed groups on the Syrian-Iraqi border killed at least seven fighters overnight into Monday, sparking immediate calls for revenge and fears of a new escalation between Washington and Tehran. The second such raid ...

Hair windswept, handsome and 32-metres high, a statue of Mao Zedong presides over a crowd of millennials alternating between selfies and bubble teas -- drawing a thread through the past, present and future of China's Communist Party in its red heart...

In Cuba, where communism and religion live uneasily side by side, there is a city where it is no longer strange to see a priest walk down the street in a white cassock followed by enthusiastic greetings of "Good day, Father!" A small order of Catho...

Sri Lanka's cricket board on Monday initiated disciplinary action against three players, including vice-captain Kusal Mendis, after videos emerged appearing to show them breaching their bio-secure Covid bubble in England. Mendis and Niroshan Dickwe...

Egypt, Jordan and Iraq agreed to bolster security and economic cooperation at a tripartite summit Sunday that saw an Egyptian head of state visit Iraq for the first time in three decades.

Thousands of people were stranded in Bangladesh's capital on Monday as authorities halted almost all public transport ahead of a sweeping lockdown imposed to combat a deadly resurgence of Covid-19 infections. The country reported 119 deaths on Sund...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met in Rome on Sunday as their new governments look to turn the page on former president Donald Trump and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose close alliance agg...

New coronavirus cases popped up in cities across Australia on Monday, prompting local authorities to impose restrictions in areas not used to living under strict Covid-19 rules. Australia has been broadly successful in containing virus clusters, bu...

Sydney McLaughlin delivered a sizzling world-record breaking 400m hurdles victory as the weather-disrupted US Olympic track and field trials drew to a thrilling close in Oregon on Sunday. The final day of the 10-day meeting in Eugene was disrupted ...

North Korean state television has aired a citizen's comment about Kim Jong Un's "emaciated" condition, a highly unusual broadcast in a country where public discussion of the leader's health and personal life has always been off-limits. Analysts say...

Australia faces stalled population growth and budget deficits until at least 2060 as a result of emergency Covid-19 measures, the government warned Monday. The decision to slam shut its borders at the start of the pandemic, combined with lower fer...

Hong Kong police have arrested the lead opinion writer of Apple Daily on national security grounds as he tried to fly out of the city, local media reported, days after the pro-democracy newspaper was forced to shut down. Apple Daily, an unapologeti...

Sydney McLaughlin set a world record in the women's 400m hurdles at the US Olympic trials on Sunday, clocking 51.90sec after a thrilling battle with rival Dalilah Muhammad. The 21-year-old star became the first woman ever to duck below the 52-secon...

The US Pacific territory of Guam will offer visitors a Covid-19 vaccination with their tropical holiday, in a bid to restart its struggling tourism industry. Dubbed 'Air V&V' -- vacation and vaccination -- the programme is primarily aimed at US exp...