When New Delhi-based journalist Sonia Sarkar arrived in Kabul last week intending to report on the implications of the conflict between Afghan forces and the Taliban on the back of the US troop withdrawal, life in Afghanistan’s capital seemed norma...

Taiwan has rejected an application for the production and emergency use of UBI Pharma’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, its government said on Monday, in a setback for the island’s push to attain self-sufficiency.Developing its own vaccine has been a...

A Hong Kong man who hacked his son with a knife during a dispute over bathroom use, leaving him in hospital for almost a month, has been jailed for nearly 1½ years.Former butcher Wong Pak-chung, 79, was sentenced at the District Court on Monday afte...

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Monday in his annual state-of-the-nation speech that there was a need to strike a balance between health and economic interests amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia’s biggest country.“The pande...

The day began with the blaring cacophony of traffic as people in Kabul rushed headlong to attend to last-minute business: a frantic search for an ATM still dispensing cash, a fruitless journey to a closed shop, a harrowing trip to the airport in hope...

Shenzhen, known as China’s Silicon Valley, is offering cross-border e-commerce merchants a subsidy of 2 million yuan (US$308,000) as the “made in China, sold on Amazon” community continues to suffer from the US e-commerce giant’s crackdown on...

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigned on Monday after weeks of turmoil in his government, ending a 17-month stint in power during which his legitimacy came under constant scrutiny and amid seething public anger over his handling of th...

Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog received a record number of complaints about overseas relocation services this year, with moving companies accused of charging high hidden costs and delivering personal belongings long after promised.The Consumer Counc...

US troops fired shots into the air at Kabul airport on Monday as thousands of Afghans crowded onto the tarmac in the hope of catching a flight out after the Taliban takeover of the country.“I feel very scared here. They are firing lots of shots int...

The last living leader from the inner circle of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime launched his courtroom appeal on Monday, seeking to convince a long-running international tribunal to overturn his conviction on charges of genocide.Khieu Samphan,...

China has seen far fewer daily local infection cases of Covid-19 cases than imported cases for four straight days, according to its health authorities, a sign that the country’s efforts to suppress the transmission of the coronavirus through restri...

China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan container port, the world’s third-busiest, remained partially closed for a sixth day on Monday, amid ongoing concern over whether the shutdown will disrupt trade from the region longer term.The port has not published any u...

Business tycoon and opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema was on Monday declared winner of the hotly contested presidential election in debt-burdened Zambia.With 155 of 156 constituencies reporting, official results showed Hichilema had captured a lan...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.Hong Kong is elevating 15 countries to its “high-risk” category for Covid-19, meaning significantly toughe...

The Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus is credited with coming up with the term “prevention is better than cure” in the 1500s, but it took a devastating pandemic 500 years later for governments to seriously look at that approach on a global sca...

Australia’s most populous city recorded its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic on Monday, as hundreds of unarmed military personnel were deployed across Sydney in a desperate attempt to quell a “disturbing” number of infections.Sydney, whic...

Now that the Taliban has regained power after nearly two decades in the Afghan hinterlands, the average Afghan will face a radically different government, and lifestyle, than the one they have known since the US-led invasion in late 2001.How will the...

After two decades of the United States’ costly and bloody efforts to support the Afghan government, the Taliban has retaken control of the country in stunning fashion, posing new risks – and opportunities – for neighbouring China.China’s fore...

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Natash Korecki and Christopher Cadelago on politico.com on August 15, 2021.US President Joe Biden long touted his foreign policy credentials as a core asset...

China’s central bank injected billions of yuan through medium-term loans into the financial system on Monday, while keeping the interest rate unchanged for the 16th month in a row.The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) kept the rate on 600 billion yua...

A group of volunteers in SUVs and pickup cars loaded with reusable blue-cloth tote bags slowly made their way from rural Bali into the island’s urban centres in Ubud. The bags contained a select variety of fresh vegetables and some ground coffee, a...

China’s economic slowdown continued in July, data released on Monday showed, with both industrial production and retail sales falling short of expectations.Industrial production, a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sector...

The Taliban were in control of Afghanistan on Monday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and conceded the insurgents had won the 20-year war.The United States lowered the flag on its embassy in Kabul and has relocated almost all staff to th...

Hong Kong police are investigating a fatal crash that killed a 63-year-old bus driver in Tsing Yi just before midnight on Sunday.The 962B Citybus heading from Tuen Mun to Causeway Bay collided with a broken-down delivery van near the Ting Kau Bridge,...

The remaining stretch of the long-overdue Sha Tin to Central link, Hong Kong’s most expensive rail project ever, will be delayed yet again as the MTR Corporation will not be able to make up for the setbacks caused by signalling glitches last year, ...

The target is possible but without input from China it will not be within reach.In its report last week, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the world would probably reach or exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming with...

Humanity’s need to tackle climate change is more pressing than ever, with the United Nations warning last week that global warming would accelerate at a faster-than-expected pace over the next 20 years. In this four-part series, the Post examines i...

Malaysia’s seemingly interminable political uncertainty has become a key factor dampening confidence in the local equities market, leading to an exodus of foreign investors as it becomes one of the worst performers in Southeast Asia.Prime Minister ...

Thousands of protesters in cars and on bikes massed in Bangkok’s central shopping district on Sunday, one of several mobile rallies across Thailand demanding Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha resign over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.By n...

A large, rapidly spreading forest fire was raging just outside Jerusalem on Sunday, according to local media.Israeli police said on Twitter that evacuations had begun in several villages affected by the flames and roads were being blocked off.Several...

A fuel tank explosion in Lebanon killed 28 people and injured 80 on Sunday as a crowd clamoured for petrol, authorities and medical staff said, the latest catastrophe to spark outrage in the crisis-hit country.The tragedy in the remote north overwhel...

Ashraf Ghani, who left Afghanistan on Sunday following the Taliban’s rapid advance through the country and into Kabul, was twice elected Afghan president, and is one of the country’s best-known academics.President Ghani left the country hours aft...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau triggered an election on Sunday as he seeks to capitalise on Canada being one of the most fully vaccinated countries in the world.Trudeau announced the election would be held on September 20 after visiting the governor g...

The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti climbed to 1,297 on Sunday, a day after the powerful temblor turned thousands of structures into rubble and set off frantic rescue efforts ahead of a potential deluge from an approaching storm.S...

The US business community has piled pressured on the White House to restart trade talks and adjust tariffs with China, but a lack of political motivation dims prospects for meaningful engagement between Beijing and Washington, observers say.As part o...

The Taliban has released footage showing captured US-made Afghan military helicopters at Kandahar airport, until recently one of the most important American bases in the country.The insurgents have been quick to show off their war spoils in the south...

One of China’s leading universities is re-examining the doctoral dissertation of a household name in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic after accusations surfaced online about plagiarism.In a brief statement on Sunday, Shanghai’s Fudan Un...

Hong Kong’s finance chief expects the city’s HK$5,000 electronic voucher sc heme, which closed for registrations on Saturday, to further stimulate private consumption growth and boost the economy.Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po on Sunday sai...

Targeted import bans by the United States on seafood caught by Chinese owned vessels over forced labour claims, while reflecting Washington’s increasing pressure on Beijing over the hot button issue, show that US-China tensions have spread into an ...

China has called on Japan to face up to its wartime past to build trust with its neighbours, after a series of visits by Japanese cabinet members to Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine.In a statement on Sunday, China’s foreign ministry said Bei...

Hong Kong has a constitutional obligation to implement mainland China’s anti-sanctions law to counteract any action by foreign entities, the finance chief has said, adding the city’s status as an international financial centre will be taken into ...

Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan is facing a boycott over photos he took three years ago at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, as criticism of him continued on the anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II.The China Association of Performing...

For almost 19 years, the Hong Kong Civil Human Rights Front has been synonymous with one significant date: July 1.The date is the anniversary of the city’s return to China in 1997, and every year since 2003 – when 500,000 people took to the stree...

A blood sample collected from American white-tailed deer in 2019 turned out to be positive in antibody tests for Covid-19 infection, according to a new study conducted by US government scientists.The researchers discovered three more positive samples...

Earlier this month, Fifa, the governing body of world football, released an updated list of their Century Club – an exclusive honour roll for players that have represented their nation at least 100 times. While familiar names such as Spain’s Serg...

The Philippines’ health department said on Sunday it has detected the first case of Covid-19’s Lambda variant in the country, and reminded the public to strictly observe minimum public health standards.The patient is a 35-year-old female who has ...

At least nine people in northern China are believed to have contracted anthrax, a disease found in domestic and wild animals, according to state media.Citing health authorities in the province of Shanxi, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that...

A windfall of HK$7.5 million (US$960,000) may sound like a dream come true for someone yearning to own a home, but what is it really worth in Hong Kong’s bloated property market?To put it into perspective, consider the lottery grand prize that a ma...

Hong Kong health authorities have urged local labs to refuse antibody test samples from overseas after a domestic helper carrying a more infectious variant of the coronavirus was found to have sent a specimen to a screening facility to shorten her qu...