One of China’s most profitable private firms has found itself at the centre of a public debate about work-life balance for workers after the details of penalties for staff who used entertainment apps during office hours were made public.Ten staff m...

Cathay Pacific has fired three cargo pilots who were infected with Covid-19 in Frankfurt after an internal investigation by the Hong Kong carrier found the trio were involved in a “serious breach” while overseas.In a statement on Thursday afterno...

Police have stepped up surveillance of a notorious triad in Hong Kong amid fears of revenge attacks after a former gangland boss was assaulted in a brutal knife attack.The 55-year-old victim, believed to be a former leader of the Wo On Lok triad, was...

L’Oréal has issued an apology in China after deal-seeking shoppers accused the French cosmetics conglomerate of deceiving consumers during this year’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, prompting two of the country’s best-known live-streaming i...

Three athletes attending training events for the Beijing Winter Olympics have tested positive for Covid-19, Chinese officials said Thursday, as the country remains on high alert against the coronavirus ahead of the Games.Beijing 2022 organisers have ...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that decoupling from China is not the right option for Europe despite tensions in the relationship.The outgoing leader also told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that Germany may have been naive in some ar...

Philippine activists held a protest on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the burial of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose son has emerged as an early front runner in the presidential race next year.“We are here to inform the people that Marcos...

Kei Komuro, the husband of former Japanese princess Mako Komuro, has paid about 4 million yen (US$35,000) to his mother’s former fiancé to settle a financial dispute that has overshadowed their marriage, the ex-fiancé’s representative said on T...

Growing numbers of Hong Kong’s foreign domestic helpers are “abusing” a special arrangement that has allowed them to stay in the city for a month after their contracts have been terminated, officials have said, pointing to a major jump in the n...

China faces increasingly severe national security challenges and stresses from outside its borders, according to a landmark historical resolution released on Tuesday which says Beijing’s capacity to deal with these tests is “insufficient”.“In...

Japan’s vice foreign minister pulled out of a planned news conference with his South Korean and US counterparts in Washington on Wednesday over a territorial dispute between the two countries, a Japanese embassy spokesperson said.US Deputy Secretar...

A former Hong Kong police sergeant, who worked as a taxi driver after retiring two years ago, died in a head-on collision between his cab and a seven-seater vehicle on Thursday.The 57-year-old had to be freed from his vehicle by firefighters before h...

Hong Kong authorities will continue to lure wild boars with food before killing them when they stray into urban areas, despite widespread condemnation of an approach one campaigner described as “despicable and bloody”.A senior official at the Agr...

Hong Kong’s coronavirus booster shot programme, which opened to high-risk groups just last week, is being expanded to include anyone who has received a second Sinovac jab at least six months ago.Bookings and walk-in appointments for third vaccine d...

Sudanese security forces shot dead at least 15 anti-coup protesters and wounded dozens more on Wednesday, medics said, in the bloodiest day since the military’s October 25 takeover.The fatalities – all in Khartoum, especially its northern distric...

For much of the past few decades, China’s growth has been powered by fossil fuels, particularly coal. While the economic gains have been vast and rapid, the toll on the environment has been huge. In the third of a four-part series, Echo Xie looks a...

An F-35 fighter jet from Britain’s biggest aircraft carrier crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, though the pilot ejected and was safely returned to the ship.The pilot ejected during a routine operation over international waters. No oth...

Some recent studies have shown similar peak viral loads in vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated people who contract Covid-19. This has raised concerns for the efficacy of vaccines for preventing transmission.How concerned should we be? Are vacc...

Media baron Rupert Murdoch told former US president Donald Trump that he needed to leave the past behind and focus on the future to address problems the country faces.“The current American political debate is profound, whether about education or we...

China’s first high-speed rail line across the Gobi Desert is slowing down, and the desert may be to blame.Severe sandstorms could have seriously affected operations, a new study by Chinese scientists suggests, after travellers in recent years quest...

South Korea reported a record high 3,292 new coronavirus cases, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Thursday, as the country moves into the first phase of its “living with Covid-19” with loosened restrictions.A rise in ...

Several vials labelled as “smallpox” were discovered at a Merck & Co vaccine research facility near Philadelphia, prompting the FBI and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to open investigations, according to the Department of Homeland Sec...

French luxury brand Dior has come under fire in China after showing a photo that was “smearing Asian women”, according to state media.The photograph, which was part of the Lady Dior exhibition held at the West Bund Art Centre in Shanghai, shows a...

The US House of Representatives censured one of its members for the first time in over a decade, rebuking a Republican over an anime video that depicted him killing progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and swinging two swords at President Jo...

Before children learn to speak, it may be challenging for most parents to figure out their little ones’ needs. But for Miyuki Pang, failing to understand her daughter brought extra pain.“Before she was two years old, my daughter always got frustr...

The Philippines condemned “in strongest terms” the actions of three Chinese coastguard vessels which blocked and used water cannons on two of its supply boats on their way to a Manila-occupied atoll in the South China Sea, its top diplomat said o...

The Canadian Pacific coast province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency on Wednesday following floods and mudslides caused by extremely heavy rainfall, and officials said they expected to find more dead.Every major route between the Low...

Veteran journalists and academics have expressed scepticism at a suggestion from the Hong Kong government that it would prefer to use regulatory means to combat “fake news” and turn to criminal sanctions only as a last resort, saying it remains u...

A leading Chinese information technology company is under investigation for pressuring its staff to work overtime by hanging banners berating people for not staying back past their finishing times.The Chutian Metropolis News reported that Inspur, a S...

The United States should end its long-standing policy of “strategic ambiguity”, which leaves unclear whether it will defend Taiwan in the event of an attack by China, in order to make US intentions clear and deter Beijing from acting precipitousl...

A lawsuit filed on Wednesday alleges that Alec Baldwin recklessly fired a gun when it was not called for in the script when he shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza on the New Mexico set of the film Rust.“T...

Heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait are unlikely to lead to “war overnight” but are in a state where a “mishap or miscalculation” could occur, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned on Wednesday.Lee’s remarks at the Bloomb...

It is a crisp November afternoon and South Korea’s famous crimson autumn foliage is on full display as the large crowd heads towards Jogyesa Temple in the busy district of Jongno, central Seoul.Every year around this time, parents and grandparents ...

Hongkong Land, the biggest landlord in the Central business district, has revealed a new programme backed by a HK$100 million (US$12.84 million) fund aimed at helping 1,000 pupils and their families living in subdivided flats to climb the social ladd...

The head of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) on Wednesday said he was increasingly concerned about the well-being of Chinese tennis pro Peng Shuai and doubted the legitimacy of an email purportedly written by Peng and released by Chinese state ...

Two men found guilty of the 1965 assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X are to have their convictions thrown out, one of them posthumously, in an admission by US authorities of a historic miscarriage of justice.Manhattan District Attorney Cyr...

Filipino activists who were jailed, abused and tortured during late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law on Wednesday asked the Commission on Elections to disqualify his son and namesake from running for president next year, saying he may “whit...

The global battle against Covid-19 may be on the verge of getting a game-changing new weapon: virus-fighting pills. But questions remain on how well these up-and-coming treatments will work in the real world, and what their impact on the pandemic wil...

The mother of Canadian pop star Wanting Qu has been convicted of corruption by a Chinese court and sentenced to life imprisonment, more than five years after a trial in which prosecutors had requested the death penalty.The Harbin City Intermediate Pe...

Jacob Chansley, the self-proclaimed “QAnon Shaman” who wore a coyote-skin headdress into the Senate chamber, was sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack. Chansley, 34, was sentenced on Wednesday ...

An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year, a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the Covid-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.Overdose deaths have been rising for more than two decades, a...

Hong Kong wildlife officials captured and later put down seven wild boars on Wednesday evening, in line with a change of policy on controlling the animals in urban areas.Officers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department carried shi...

Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday held a face-to-face audience with Britain’s highest-ranking military officer, almost a month after her last public appearance.The 95-year-old monarch withdrew from an annual event remembering Britain’s war dead on Sun...

The US government’s leading advisory panel on China policy urged Congress on Wednesday to deter mainland China from invading Taiwan by authorising and funding less vulnerable US bases in the Indo-Pacific, “large numbers” of ballistic and anti-s...

The US government should expand investment restrictions on Chinese companies to protect American investors and national security, a leading advisory panel on China policy said in an annual review on Wednesday.The US-China Economic and Security Review...

Police in Vietnam have summoned a beef noodle seller who filmed himself imitating Nusret Gokce, or “Salt Bae”, days after a top Vietnamese official was caught on camera eating gold-encrusted steak at the Turkish celebrity chef’s London restaura...

China and the US are expected to start a strategic dialogue to stop tensions spiralling out of control following this week’s virtual summit between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden.Chinese analysis said the talks on crisis management could see them coming ...

A former district councillor on Wednesday told a Hong Kong court how a complete stranger bit off his ear with a “pluck” sound that he would remember for the rest of his life, after he tried to stop an argument during the 2019 social unrest.“I j...

A Polish government official said Wednesday that migrants who have spent days in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian side of Poland’s eastern border were being taken away by bus by Belarusian officials, offering the prospect of a possible de-escalat...

Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency will deploy about 800 officers in an unprecedented operation to ensure voting in the Legislative Council election goes ahead smoothly next month.The officers from the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) wi...