Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday announced he would not stand for re-election in the upcoming vote for leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The news came as a shock to some of his supporters but analysts said the writing...

A Hong Kong doctor has been slammed in court for not showing an “iota of remorse” for her gross negligence, which resulted in the death of a patient at a beauty clinic seven years ago.Madam Justice Susana D’Almada Remedios on Friday observed th...

For North Korea, the threat posed by Covid-19 could hardly be more stark. The impoverished country’s health care system is dilapidated and overstretched, while its 26 million people are especially vulnerable to disease due to chronic undernourishme...

US President Joe Biden pledged robust federal help for the Northeastern and Gulf states battered by Hurricane Ida and for Western states beset by wildfires – with the catastrophes serving as deadly reminders that the “climate crisis” has arrive...

New Zealand police on Friday shot and killed a “violent extremist” known to the police, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, after he stabbed and wounded at least six people in a supermarket.The attacker, a Sri Lankan national who had been in New ...

Hong Kong’s Consumer Council has received more than 120 complaints from the clients of three beauty chains that abruptly closed this week, with each seeking an average refund of HK$32,500 (US$4,180), the watchdog has revealed.The three spa chains �...

American podcast juggernaut Joe Rogan, who has tested positive for Covid-19, says he has taken a number of drugs to treat the virus, including the antiparasitic medicine ivermectin.Rogan, whose podcast racks up millions of listens but who has faced c...

Australia’s New South Wales on Friday reported an all-time high number of new Covid-19 cases and deaths despite being 10 weeks into lockdown, as the federal government tried to convince states and territories to follow its national reopening plan.N...

About 200 Hong Kong university students and secondary school pupils chatted with three mainland Chinese astronauts orbiting the Earth aboard the national Tiangong space station on Friday.Before the extraterrestrial exchange began, astronaut Liu Bomin...

Sri Lanka’s drive to become the world’s first 100 per cent organic food producer threatens its prized tea industry and has triggered fears of a wider crop disaster that could deal a further blow to the beleaguered economy.President Gotabaya Rajap...

Five university students have been convicted of rioting and violating a ban on wearing masks at public gatherings over their roles in a violent confrontation at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in November 2019.The five CUHK undergraduates ...

Qatar said it was working with the Taliban to quickly reopen Kabul’s airport, whose closure since the departure of US troops could pose major strategic and humanitarian challenges.A jet from the Gulf country was the first foreign aircraft to land i...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, struggling ahead of a September 20 election, came under concerted fire at a debate on Thursday from opponents who said he had no business calling an election during the Covid-19 pandemic.Trudeau and the leaders...

China denied accusations by a US congressional body that Beijing has failed to live up to a commitment to help stop the flow of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl into the US, and turned the blame for a sharp rise in overdoses on Washington itself....

From food stalls, cigarette stands and hair salons to massage parlours, motorbike taxis and pet-grooming services, MSMEs – micro, small and medium-sized enterprises – touch nearly every aspect of life in Indonesia.As such it is hard to overstate ...

Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ largest budget airline, has been banned from operating passenger flights from Manila to Hong Kong for two weeks from Friday, in yet another blow to Filipino domestic helpers only recently granted the right to once aga...

Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday he will not run for re-election as party leader this month, effectively ending his tenure after just one year.He told a news conference in Tokyo that he will not run for leader of the ruling Libe...

The Chinese military has claimed that it now has a strategic air force following years of advances, but analysts say a lack of adequate transport aircraft and bombers is holding it back.Their assessment followed Chinese air force spokesman Shen Jinke...

Australia’s economic resilience in the wake of China’s efforts to punish it for diplomatic slights has some down under declaring victory. They might be speaking too soon.Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said last month that China’s campai...

Activity in China’s services sector “plunged” in August due to a series of coronavirus outbreaks, a private survey showed on Friday, matching the findings in the official data released earlier this week.The Caixin/Markit services purchasing man...

Flash flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed at least 44 people in the New York area, including several who perished in their basements during the “historic” weather event that officials blamed on climate change.Record rainfall, ...

A new quantum radar technology developed by Chinese scientists could detect stealth aircraft by generating a small electromagnetic storm, according to the researchers.Most radars are known for having a fixed or rotating dish, but this quantum radar l...

A World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute panel rejected all four of China’s claims against the United States relating to safeguard measures that the Trump administration imposed on solar panels imported from Chinese manufacturers.China did not esta...

In some of Asia’s Covid-19 hotspots, powerful and wealthier citizens are nabbing booster shots even as most people remain unvaccinated, undermining the inoculation strategies of nations struggling with the highly infectious Delta variant.The growin...

A Japanese-themed cultural and residential project in the city of Dalian in northeast China has been closed after just two weeks, with suggestions it is related to a sensitive date in history prior to the second Sino-Japanese war.Videos and images ha...

Alexanda Kotey, a member of the notorious Islamic State kidnapping cell dubbed the “Beatles”, pleaded guilty on Thursday in a US court to charges of conspiring to murder four American hostages.The federal court in Alexandria, Virginia outside Was...

A Taliban spokesman said on Friday that China has promised to keep its embassy in Afghanistan open and to increase humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged country.Abdul Salam Hanafi, a member of the Islamist group’s political office in Doha, Qatar, “...

Canada’s foreign ministry says it is “deeply troubled” by a lack of transparency surrounding the Chinese espionage cases against Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, after the first details of the allegations against the men emerged in ...

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday said it was grounding space flights by Virgin Galactic while it investigates why the company’s July mission carrying Richard Branson deviated from its planned trajectory.The move represents a...

Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian along the Gaza border on Thursday as hundreds set fire to tyres and threw stones, Gaza’s health ministry said.The Israeli military said more than 1,000 Palestinians had gathered along the fortified front...

The South Florida house that gangster Al Capone owned for nearly two decades, and died in, is facing demolition.The Miami Herald reported on Thursday that the new owners of the nine-bedroom, Miami Beach house plan to demolish it after buying it for U...

The deadly terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 prompted an outcry from around the world: “We are all Americans.” But even before the dust had settled around the World Trade Centre, Washington’s policies realigned a...

Nasa’s Perseverance rover succeeded in its second attempt to scoop up a piece of Martian rock for future analysis by scientists on Earth – probably.Its first effort last month failed after the rock was too crumbly to withstand the robot’s drill...

President Joe Biden declared an emergency in California that will allow federal help for the Caldor fire, which has burned hundreds of structures and is moving toward Nevada.The fire took aim at Lake Tahoe for several days amid heavy winds. But that ...

Joan MacDonald’s health was in shambles at age 71. She was overweight and on numerous medications with high cholesterol, rising blood pressure and kidney trouble.Her daughter, a US fitness coach, warned that she’d wind up an invalid if she did no...

Composer Mikis Theodorakis, whose infectious, earthy score for the film Zorba the Greek helped foster a sunny, carefree image of his country for millions of tourists, died on Thursday, aged 96.As news of his passing swept through the nation, parliame...

ABBA is releasing its first new music in four decades, along with a concert performance that will see the Dancing Queen quartet going entirely digital.The forthcoming album “Voyage”, to be released November 5, is a follow-up to 1981’s “The Vi...

A Hong Kong police inspector has been suspended from duty after a former female colleague alleged he raped her about three years ago in their office, according to force insiders.The inspector, who is in his 30s, was accused of raping the constable in...

Egypt’s president held talks in Cairo on Thursday with the King of Jordan and the president of the Palestinian Authority aimed at reviving the Middle East peace process and strengthening a ceasefire that halted the Israel-Hamas war.Egypt’s Abdel ...

An elite squad of correctional officers was called to a women’s prison in northern Hong Kong on Thursday to defuse a confrontation between guards and 18 inmates angry over punishment meted out to others for possessing contraband items.The Correctio...

A German court on Thursday sentenced a 46-year-old man to indefinite detention for sexually abusing a teenage boy he kept hidden for over two years and who police found in a wardrobe.A court in Bochum sentenced the accused, identified as Lars H., to ...

Hong Kong has been chosen to host Asia’s premier tech conference for the next five years, with the government and industry chiefs hailing the decision as evidence of the city’s success in containing the coronavirus pandemic and a boost for the co...

China has called on France to stay independent on foreign policy and to urge the European Union to do the same to avoid US interference in the bloc’s troubled relationship with Beijing.Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Paris could also push to repair a...

Whether supporters of a legal defence fund for Hong Kong protesters – currently under investigation on national security grounds – can be held criminally liable for their donations depends in part on how they intended the money to be spent, exper...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced plans to set up a new stock exchange in Beijing and more digital trade pilot zones under plans to expand the country’s role as a global services hub.In a short speech at the opening of the China Internatio...

Defiant Afghan women on Thursday held a rare protest saying they were willing to accept the burka if their daughters could still go to school under Taliban rule.“It is our right to have education, work and security,” the group of around 50 female...

Ireland on Thursday slapped Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service with a record fine for breaching EU data privacy laws after European regulators demanded the penalty be increased.Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) was entrusted with the ...

TikTok owner ByteDance, which has been diversifying its business beyond its widely popular short video-sharing app, has decided to downsize its financial services operations amid Beijing’s continued campaign to “prevent the irrational expansion o...

Malaysia has lost the opportunity to host the RISE tech conference, in a blow to its embattled economy as it becomes Southeast Asia’s new coronavirus hotspot.Organisers of the event on Thursday said plans to move the 2022 conference to Kuala Lumpur...