Hong Kong has passed a series of censorship law amendments that empower the city’s No 2 official to prohibit the screening of films deemed threats to national security and increase the maximum penalty for violations.Lawmakers on Wednesday approved ...

The row between China and the United States over Taiwan is escalating, with the top US diplomat calling for UN member states to support the island taking part in international bodies.Beijing protested to Washington over the remarks by Secretary of St...

A former headmaster of G.T. (Ellen Yeung) College in Hong Kong has been arrested on suspicion of embezzling more than HK$10 million (US$1.28 million) from the school through bogus cash reimbursements, according to a police source.Nip Man, 43, is accu...

The daily number of Covid-19 deaths in Russia hit another high on Wednesday amid a surge in infections that has forced the Kremlin to order most Russians to stay off work starting this week.Sluggish vaccination rates have allowed the virus to spread ...

China’s overseer of offshore bonds has swung into action, promising easier access to foreign exchange to enable the borrowers of overseas debt to fulfil their obligations, as a string of missed payments turns the final quarter of 2021 into another ...

Hong Kong’s Ocean Park has slumped into a HK$31.8 million (US$4 million) deficit after posting a HK$1.92 billion surplus just a year earlier, even with the government pumping large sums of cash into the attraction.The net deficit was revealed on We...

After a trial that spanned more than a year, a man from Wuhan and his wife were on Tuesday convicted of withholding information from Covid-19 contact tracers in Singapore.Chinese national Hu Jun, 40, tested positive for Covid-19 in January last year,...

The head of defence contractor Raytheon has said the US is years behind China in its pursuit of hypersonic weapons which can bob and weave through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound.Hypersonics capability is “the most destabi...

China reported 50 local symptomatic cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday – a record high in daily new infections since the latest nationwide outbreak began on October 17.The health ministry said on Wednesday that 32 of the cases were identified in the coun...

The general leading Sudan’s coup has vowed to usher the country to an elected government. But Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has powerful allies, including Gulf nations and a feared Sudanese paramilitary commander, and he appears intent on keeping the mili...

A US aircraft carrier strike group is conducting joint exercises with a Japanese helicopter destroyer in the South China Sea, days after China and Russia wrapped up drills in the region.The USS Carl Vinson and its strike group are in the contested wa...

Alec Baldwin the actor, who pulled the trigger on a prop gun while filming Rust in New Mexico and unwittingly killed a cinematographer and injured a director, likely won’t be held criminally or civilly liable for the tragedy.But Alec Baldwin the pr...

Tucked away in rural New Zealand, a multimillion dollar research facility is working to slash the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by farm animals – saving the world one belch at a time.Cattle and sheep are kept in perspex pens for two...

The US intelligence community has assessed that Islamic State in Afghanistan could have the capability to attack the United States in as little as six months, and has the intention to do so, a senior Pentagon official told Congress on Tuesday.The rem...

Profits at China’s industrial firms rose at a faster pace in September despite surging prices and supply bottlenecks, thanks mainly to stellar growth in mining and raw materials industries although some businesses struggled to shake off the high co...

A Brazilian Senate commission approved a damning report on Tuesday that recommends criminal charges be brought against President Jair Bolsonaro, including crimes against humanity, for his Covid-19 policies.Seven of the panel’s 11 senators voted to ...

With up to 2,700 hours of sunshine a year, the “land of smiles” Thailand has much to be happy about.Not only is its year-round tropical climate a magnet for tourists, its ever reliable rays have the potential to provide a near-inexhaustible sourc...

Properties in Sha Tau Kok, a sleepy town in the far north of Hong Kong, have enjoyed a spurt of popularity after the government unveiled plans to develop the northern New Territories.Home prices in the frontier town could jump by between 5 and 10 per...

It is common knowledge that there are four famous international spy agencies, the US’ CIA, UK’s MI6, the former Soviet Union’s KGB and Israel’s Mossad.In China, there’s another rising star — the “Chaoyang public”, which the Chinese jo...

Companies in Hong Kong remain deeply pessimistic over the prospect that cross-border business will improve any time soon, despite the city’s success in battling Covid-19 and government’s latest move to meet Beijing’s conditions for reopening.Th...

Employment prospects in China’s education and tutoring sector vastly outweigh those in other industries due to the reduced competitiveness in the sector’s job market amid a regulatory crackdown in recent months, a new report says.In the year’s ...

Australia will lift a ban on citizens travelling overseas without permission, the government announced on Wednesday, with the country’s border set to open to skilled workers and international students by year’s end.More than 18 months after Austr...

China has released a framework for its path towards peak emissions and carbon neutrality ahead of the critical United Nations climate summit that begins in Glasgow on Sunday.The State Council on Tuesday issued the action plan for the country to peak ...

Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Hong Kong’s best known billionaire, Li Ka-shing, said its investments in sustainability projects from “edible plastic” to fake leather and plant-based chicken nuggets are ready to be scaled up to...

A four-year-old Beijing-based advertising agency, which sells time slots on China’s popular short video platforms to advertisers, began offering its shares to investors in Hong Kong on Tuesday with the aim of raising up to HK$1.1 billion (US$141 mi...

A former PLA soldier with extensive anti-terrorism experience has been confirmed as party chief of Urumqi, capital of China’s far western Xinjiang region.Yang Fasen, 50, appeared in his new role for the first time alongside the 14 other members of ...

A senior US official called out Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday for not travelling to two impending global conferences in Europe, contrasting that with President Joe Biden’s plans to engage in energised meetings with other world leaders.The...

An expert panel on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to recommend the US Food and Drug Administration authorise the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE Covid-19 vaccine for children ages five to 11, saying the benefits of inoculation outweigh the risks.An authoris...

Sudan’s deposed prime minister and his wife were allowed to return home on Tuesday, a day after they were detained when the military seized power in a coup, according to a statement issued by his office.The release of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has agreed to establish a dispute-settlement panel to address Canberra’s complaint over Beijing’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on imports of wine from Australia, after a first request was blocked by China i...

US senators put executives from YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat on the defensive on Tuesday, questioning them about what they are doing to ensure young users’ safety on their platforms.Citing the harm that can come to vulnerable young people from the ...

In a move sure to provoke Beijing, a delegation from the European Parliament will travel to Taiwan next week, as lawmakers push for closer ties with Taipei.The small party plans to travel early next week, according to multiple sources familiar with t...

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has pulled out of the COP26 conference in Glasgow next week after she was advised by doctors to rest, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday, in a blow to the United Nations climate summit.A palace source said the decision to n...

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday voted to order China Telecom Americas to stop providing telecommunication service in the United States, citing national security concerns.The move, announced at the start of a virtual open mee...

For the first time in history, astronomers believe they have found signs of a planet outside our galaxy.Around 28 million light-years away, a Saturn-sized planet in the spiral galaxy Messier 51 could exist, according to a study published on Monday in...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau overhauled his cabinet on Tuesday and named women to the foreign affairs and defence posts in his gender balanced cabinet.Trudeau named Mélanie Joly as foreign minister and Anita Anand as defence minister. Chry...

Chinese President Xi Jinping told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that the European Union should maintain its autonomy in foreign policy, in their first phone conversation since the formation of a defence alliance between the US, Br...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged United Nations member states to include Taiwan in more UN institutions, despite opposition from China.“Taiwan has not been permitted to contribute to UN efforts,” Blinken said in a statement. ...

Five ferry passengers in Hong Kong suffered minor injuries after their vessel hit the edge of Mui Wo pier on Tuesday night.According to police, officers received a report from Sun Ferry staff at 8.41pm, involving an operator on the Central route who ...

The coronavirus pandemic has left hundreds of Hongkongers homeless, including more than 500 who would cross back and forth over the mainland Chinese border to live and work until travel restrictions forced them to return to the city, an unof...

Physicists in China say they have built two quantum computers with performance speeds which top their Western competitors – a superconducting machine and an even faster type which uses light photons to achieve never-before seen results.According to...

China’s major e-commerce platforms have apparently banned keyword search for products related to hit Netflix show Squid Game , which has prompted merchants to devise workarounds for consumers to find these goods online.An online check by the South ...

Taiwan has unveiled the first generation of a battery-powered exoskeleton suit that could enhance the physical endurance of soldiers and increase mobility in various military operations.This comes amid a spike in tensions across the Taiwan Strait, wi...

Nearly all imported Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong were detected in the first 14 days of quarantine, health authorities have revealed, but experts insist that the 21-day isolation period for some travellers should be maintained to prevent community outb...

A new chip fabrication plant from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) will cover a land area equal to about five football fields and mainly produce display driver and power management chips using mature technologies, according to a ...

Japan should never try to cross a sensitive line with China but should instead work with Beijing to avoid outside interference to better manage disputes and rebuild mutual trust, the Chinese foreign minister said.Speaking in a video message at the op...

A proposed overhaul of Hong Kong’s legal aid system that some fear could curtail government critics’ access to quality representation may be implemented as early as the end of the year, with authorities standing by their decision not to hold mass...

The party secretary for Inner Mongolia’s Ejina banner – a tourist destination in northern China that is grappling with a Covid-19 outbreak – has been removed from his post for mismanagement of the pandemic response, according to a local newspap...

China’s rapid expansion of high-speed rail has indirectly cut greenhouse gas emissions by creating capacity for freight on conventional trains, according to a new study.Electricity-powered high-speed rail (HSR) produces more emissions than cars on ...

The daughter of Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno on Tuesday gave up Islam and embraced Hinduism, in a move that human rights and political observers held up as evidence of religious pluralism in the world’s most populous Muslim country.Some...