The number of applicants eyeing elite-level policymaker posts has dropped by 30 per cent from a year ago, and Hong Kong’s top civil servant pointed to drastic political changes and the implementation of the national security law as the reason.Secre...

Singapore’s energy regulator said on Saturday that it is working closely with retailers facing challenges from current volatile electricity prices and said there will be no disruption to their customers’ electricity supply.Singapore’s wholesale...

Many private English teachers who remain in China are keeping a low profile amid China’s ongoing crackdown on off-campus education, and a number of private institutions remain stuck in an operational quagmire – saying they are unable to refund cu...

Elderly Hong Kong residents hoping to take a coronavirus jab will soon only need to pick up the phone and a car will be sent to drive them to a vaccination centre, a senior official has said.Mobile vaccination vehicles will also begin visiting local ...

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent description of the island and the Chinese mainland as two unrelated entities – highly provocative to Beijing – could be a big booster for her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party to retain powe...

An Apple employee who led fellow workers in publicly sharing instances of what they called harassment and discrimination at the company said on Thursday that she had been fired.Janneke Parrish, an Apple programme manager, said the iPhone maker inform...

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Friday evening to extend the United Nations’ political mission in Haiti after a dispute between China and many other members that stressed the importance of the long-term presence of the United Nations i...

Hong Kong prosecutors on Saturday called for a psychiatric assessment of Matthew Choi – charged with murdering a taxi driver by slashing his neck – during the 31-year-old’s first court appearance since his dramatic arrest three days earlier.Com...

Three people were killed and another seven were injured when a moderately strong earthquake and an aftershock hit Indonesia’s resort island of Bali early Saturday.The quake hit just before dawn, causing people to run outdoors in a panic. It struck ...

Asian nations are slowly opening up their borders, giving vaccinated travellers the chance to again explore the region, Europe and the United States. But should one travel? If so, where to, and is it safe? This Week in Asia answers some of your basic...

The government of Denmark has raised its concerns with Beijing over the University of Hong Kong’s demand that a Danish artist’s sculpture commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown be removed from its campus after 24 years.“For...

Australian police said on Saturday they seized the largest heroin shipment ever detected in the country, worth an estimated A$140 million (US$104 million), and arrested a Malaysian national over the importation of the illicit drug.The 450-kg shipment...

Seven former opposition lawmakers and activists have been jailed for up to a year for staging a mass rally against Hong Kong’s national security law last year.Saturday’s ruling at the District Court marked the sixth time that key figures from the...

The US Defence Department said on Friday that it is committed to offering condolence payments to relatives of the 10 people who were killed in an errant drone strike in the Afghan capital Kabul in August.Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statem...

Australia’s political relationship with China may be frayed, but its softening relationship with Southeast Asia is more concerning, according to former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd.As Canberra focused on strengthening its relationship with ...

When Beijing tea shop owner Lynn studied in South Korea in 2008, she used to see dalgona biscuits being sold to children everywhere.The vendors churned out these treats at lightning speed, made in a metal ladle and stirred with a chopstick.A dozen ye...

Troops on both sides of the disputed India-China border are expected to dig in for the winter after the failure of talks between the two countries this week, according to diplomatic observers.The 13th round of commander-level military talks collapsed...

Chinese electric carmakers are still lagging behind their foreign rivals in permanent magnet (PM) motor innovation despite the fact that China is the world’s dominant supplier of the rare earth metals required for making them, a top Chinese British...

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said late on Friday that it will accept mixed-dose coronavirus vaccines from international travellers, a boost to travellers from Canada and other places.The CDC said last week that it would acc...

On many nights, Zhang Xionglian cries silently under her quilt so her teenage daughter sleeping beside her will not notice.The 49-year-old from mainland China has been on her own in Hong Kong and taking care of her child, 13, since her Hongkonger hus...

Music thumps, break dancers flip across the street and flower sellers weave between tipsy tourists. Phuket’s party strip – Bangla Road – is in soft launch mode ahead of a tourism season the Thai government has bet the house on as it tries to nu...

Three Chinese astronauts have entered the core module of Tiangong space station to begin their six-month mission.The China Manned Space Agency said Shenzhou 13 docked at the space station at 6.56am on Saturday morning, about 6½ hours after lift-off ...

Outside advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration on Friday unanimously recommended the agency authorise a second shot of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine for all recipients of the one-dose inoculation.The agency is also considering lower...

US President Joe Biden in a speech on Friday linked Beijing’s policies targeting the Uygurs in China’s Xinjiang region to the horrors of the Holocaust more than seven decades ago, and warned against global silence and complicity as world leaders ...

As demand for air travel increases in the West and travel routes slowly begin opening up in Asia, airlines have yet to figure out how to safeguard against one potential disruption to their operations: vaccine refusers.Worldwide, only two – Cathay P...

Russia’s defence ministry said one of its warships on Friday prevented a US Navy destroyer from what it described as an attempt to intrude into Russia’s territorial waters in the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.Hours later, US Indo-Pacific Command call...

Amazon’s audiobook service Audible and phone apps for reading the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple store in mainland China, the latest examples of the impact of the country’s tightened rules for internet firms....

New Zealand’s government is facing growing calls from public health experts to enact a short, sharp “circuit breaker” lockdown, a week after it shifted away from its much-vaunted coronavirus elimination strategy.The nation of 5 million was larg...

The former student accused of the February 14, 2018 shooting rampage at a school in Parkland, Florida, will plead guilty to murdering 17 people, his lawyer told a court on Friday.Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time, took a legally purchased AR-15 as...

Protesters gathered at Italian ports and thousands took to the streets on Friday against the introduction of one of the world’s toughest Covid-19 pass regimes, but fears of widespread economic chaos failed to materialise.More than 6,500 people demo...

A group of 14 pro-establishment columnists has submitted a petition to Hong Kong’s leader calling for an investigation into a hospital’s allegedly poor treatment of a veteran writer, whose death on Wednesday triggered a wider debate on the qualit...

The United States will open its borders to vaccinated foreign travellers on November 8, a White House official said, a move that will expand travel options for those who have got their shots and clamp down on those who have not.The measures are the b...

British lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death in an Essex church on Friday by an assailant who lunged at him as he met voters, in what police said was a terrorist attack.Amess, 69, from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, was kni...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has fleshed out his concept of “common prosperity”, saying now is the time to advance the goal of all citizens sharing the opportunity to be wealthy.“Only by promoting common prosperity, increasing the income of urb...

China’s Shenzhou 13 spacecraft left Earth at 12.24am on Saturday, taking its three-person crew – including the country’s second female astronaut – to spend the next six months assembling the Tiangong space station.The craft blasted off from t...

AliExpress, the global marketplace operated by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, is expanding its presence in the trading hub of Shenzhen, where a rapidly growing community of cross-border merchants suffered a recent crackdown by Amazon that sa...

A Hong Kong man has been arrested on suspicion of desecrating the Chinese flag after 31 of the five-starred banners were found vandalised and dumped on the ground in the residential district of Wong Tai Sin around National Day this year.District poli...

The MTR Corporation suffered its latest setback on Friday when Macau authorities announced a 180-day suspension of the Taipa line of its Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system to allow for the replacement of problem-plagued high-voltage cables.The Taipa li...

British health officials said on Friday that 43,000 people may have been wrongly told they do not have the coronavirus because of problems at a private laboratory.The UK Health Security Agency said the Immensa Health Clinic Ltd. lab in Wolverhampton,...

China’s Shenzhou 13 spacecraft will lift off soon after midnight on Saturday, a launch date that was carefully chosen to help it catch and dock with the core module of the Tiangong space station in the most efficient manner.The China Manned Space A...

Europe’s diplomatic reengagement with China continued on Friday as Xi Jinping spoke with European Council President Charles Michel.The Friday afternoon call took place amid speculation that Xi will not travel to Europe for the G20 leaders’ summit...

The only Hong Kong opposition party so far to allow its members to run in the coming Legislative Council poll – the first since Beijing’s electoral overhaul – is unlikely to make a significant political impact even if it fields candidates, acco...

China has signed an agreement with Bhutan to speed up talks on their disputed border, in an apparent effort to put pressure on India over their unresolved Himalayan frontiers.In an online ceremony on Thursday, China and Bhutan signed a memorandum of ...

The United Nations Biodiversity Conference in the Chinese city of Kunming closed on an upbeat note on Friday after a week that brought a joint commitment and pledges of funding to help countries put words into action.Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive...

China’s central bank for the first time on Friday lambasted property giant Evergrande Group for its “poor management”, while saying the potential spillover effects to the financial system from a collapse of the developer are controllable.The co...

The High Court has appointed two provisional liquidators to safeguard the interests of Next Digital, a media group founded by jailed tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, pending the determination of a winding-up petition by the Hong Kong government.Madam Just...

Hong Kong customs has arrested seven people over incomplete declarations for 228 tonnes of Australian lobsters worth HK$180 million (US$23.1 million) after an unofficial ban by mainland China last year sparked a jump in imports locally.The arrests we...

The retreat from China of LinkedIn, the professional social network owned by Microsoft, is the result of Beijing’s tighter regulation of the domestic internet sector as well as tougher market competition, according to industry insiders and analysts...

China Evergrande has failed to sell its single largest asset to state-backed Yuexiu Property, Reuters reported, a huge blow to the debt-stricken developer’s frantic efforts to raise the funds it needs to survive.Guangzhou government-backed Yuexiu P...

A Hong Kong couple have admitted abusing a friend’s baby daughter, who was found malnourished and with 70 injuries after she died while in their care.On Friday, the High Court heard housewife Or Ching-man, 36, brought an unconscious Heiley Or to Tu...