European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that Omicron is expected to be the dominant coronavirus variant in the 27-nation bloc by mid-January.The head of the EU’s executive branch said the bloc is well prepared to fight ...

Hong Kong residents registered with the digital payment platform Octopus will receive the final batch of government consumption vouchers valued at HK$1,000 (US$128) on Thursday, a move expected to boost spending in the city during the coming festive ...

At least 11 Indonesian migrants died and 27 are believed to be missing after a boat sank on Wednesday in stormy weather off southern Malaysia, authorities said.Indonesians looking for work sometimes try to enter neighbouring Malaysia illegally by mak...

Police in Hong Kong and Macau have arrested 16 people in connection with credit card fraud in a 10-day joint operation launched amid a 78 per cent rise in such crime in the city this year.Local officers rounded up five men and two women, seizing a co...

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said Washington would look for new ways to step up pressure on Myanmar amid persistent post-coup violence and as the country’s neighbours consider whether to continue isolating the junta chief M...

Tonga’s parliament appointed election favourite Siaosi Sovaleni as the Pacific nation’s new leader on Wednesday, ending almost a month of intense negotiations after a November 18 poll.Sovaleni, 51, comfortably defeated his only rival for the top ...

Two pointed comments over Japan’s close ties to Taiwan in the space of a couple of weeks by Shinzo Abe serve as warnings to both China’s Communist Party and Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, where the former prime minister remains an inf...

The Japanese government overstated construction orders data received from builders for years, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday, an admission that could dent credibility of official statistics widely used by investors and economists.It w...

Hongkongers spend an average of HK$3,100 (US$397) per year on skincare products but nearly half of respondents in a poll by the city’s consumer watchdog say they have left such products unused for more than a year.Face creams were the most frequent...

The Covid-19 vaccine by Sinovac Biotech is not able to produce adequate antibodies to neutralise the highly mutated coronavirus strain Omicron, according to new research from the University of Hong Kong.Both the Sinovac vaccine and another by Pfizer-...

This story has been made freely available. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.More than 300 people were trapped on the rooftop of a Hong Kong skyscraper on Wednesday, with authorities later evacuating over 1,200 after a fir...

A court in Vietnam has jailed a journalist and prominent dissident for nine years for anti-state activities, her lawyers and state media said, in a case that attracted the attention of international human rights groups.Pham Doan Trang, who published ...

The southern Chinese city of Dongguan, home to 10.5 million people, launched mass testing for Covid-19 on Wednesday after four infections were identified a day earlier.Local authorities said the move was intended to stop the further spread of the cor...

China is urging solar companies to fight against trade policies from countries such as the United States and India that are creating challenges for the industry.Companies should use legal weapons to fight trade restrictions against solar products, wh...

Former US president Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, could face criminal prosecution for refusing to cooperate fully with a probe into the deadly attack on the US Capitol, after the House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to hold him ...

Hong Kong should consider imposing a total ban on flights from Britain with the country facing an onslaught of Omicron coronavirus cases, a medical expert has said.Dr Leung Chi-chiu called on Hong Kong residents in the United Kingdom to be “mentall...

A delegation of French lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday in the latest sign of increasingly vocal Western support for Taipei having a place on the world stage despite threats from Beijing.The six-member delegation from the French National Asse...

Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has warned of the health risks posed by high sodium levels in cold cut meats, while more than half of the ham and turkey products it tested failed to meet nutritional labelling regulations.The Consumer Council study pu...

Finland’s regional government of South Karelia is dangling a series of incentives including relocation help, childcare and a fast track to residency to attract green professionals to settle in the country.Professionals, investors and entrepreneurs ...

South Korea warned on Wednesday it may reinstate stricter social distancing curbs as it posted a record daily coronavirus tally due to a persistent spike in breakthrough infections among those vaccinated and serious cases.The Korea Disease Control an...

The United Arab Emirates has informed the United States that it will suspend discussions to acquire F-35 fighter jets, a UAE official said, part of a US$23 billion deal that also includes drones and other advanced munitions.The sale of 50 F-35 warpla...

A global Covid-19 vaccine programme that struggled to deliver to needy countries is finally receiving doses at a pace it hoped for months ago.But with a new coronavirus variant raising global alarms, the pressure is on to make sure it stays that way....

Hong Kong will see property investment grow by a fifth in 2022, with hotels and serviced apartments set to become investors’ main acquisition target, according to Cushman & Wakefield.There will be 200 major transactions next year valued at around H...

Boris Johnson suffered his biggest rebellion since becoming UK prime minister, forcing him to rely on opposition votes to implement a key measure to stop the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.Almost 100 Tories on Tuesday opposed his plan to mand...

A Hong Kong court has ordered the winding up of Next Digital, a media group founded by jailed tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, following a government petition.Master Jack Wong Kin-tong of the High Court made the order on Wednesday against the parent compa...

Changing a light bulb may be a simple task for most, but it can be a challenge for the elderly and the disabled, prompting a Hong Kong property giant to lend a hand.Chinachem Group has established a team of volunteers to check in on residents with mo...

Retail sales growth in China slowed in November and fell short of expectations, data released on Wednesday showed, underscoring concerns raised by top decision-makers last week.Retail sales, a key measurement of consumer spending in the world’s mos...

The US death toll from Covid-19 topped 800,000 on Tuesday, a once-unimaginable figure seen as doubly tragic, given that more than 200,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became available practically for the asking last spring.The number of...

A Chinese man was bitten more than 10 times by a stranger who mistakenly believed him to be his ex-girlfriend’s new lover. The attack cost the victim his new job and more than 100,000 yuan (US$15,714) in expenses, Chinese media has reported.The man...

By the standards of most court cases, the scene at the Karawang District Court in West Java, Indonesia, on December 3 was dramatic.As the judge acquitted housewife Nengsy Lim, alias Valencya, of a domestic violence charge, the 45-year-old mother of t...

A raft of developers in Shanghai have received a shot in the arm as the banking authorities encouraged local lenders to grant them fresh credit to build rental homes.The Shanghai headquarters of the People’s Bank of China’s and the local branch o...

Different rules for different people.That appeared to be the conclusion some Hongkongers reached in the wake of the discovery of two Omicron cases in China, as they noted how the city’s authorities were in no rush to impose their famously tough qua...

Six days a week for 13 hours a day, 56-year-old Chen Qingling and her husband clean the corridors and bathrooms of an office building in Beijing to feed themselves and their son’s family.While their wealthier peers spend retirement travelling, taki...

OJ Simpson is a free man.The 74-year-old former football hero and actor, acquitted California murder defendant and convicted Las Vegas armed robber was granted good behaviour credits and discharged from parole effective December 1, Nevada State Polic...

Morality and decency should be the first and foremost values for artists and writers, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a national conference on Tuesday in Beijing.“The people and times will say no to any artists and writers who fail in morality an...

As the federal case begins against the Harvard chemistry professor Charles Lieber over charges related to his participation in a China talent programme, a key point of contention is whether Harvard itself is on trial.Amid jostling on Tuesday in feder...

The US Congress on Tuesday approved raising the federal government’s debt limit by US$2.5 trillion, to about US$31.4 trillion, sending the bill to President Joe Biden to sign and avert an unprecedented default.The passage follows a months-long stan...

Confidence about personal finances is growing among affluent Hongkongers, according to a survey by US brokerage Charles Schwab, with respondents turning to more aggressive investment strategies as the economy recovers from the pandemic-induced recess...

The situation has become indefensible, according to one top health expert.Across Africa, as the Omicron variant extends its reach, more than 80 per cent of the 1.2 billion people on the continent have yet to have a single dose of a coronavirus vaccin...

A Nasa spacecraft has officially “touched” the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona.Scientists announced the news on Tuesday during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.The Parker Solar Probe actually f...

A video of US teachers scooping dollar bills into their shirts on the ice at a hockey rink during a Saturday event has gone viral, with critics on social media calling the contest cruel and dystopian.The event, dubbed Dash for Cash, involved 10 teach...

The World Health Organization on Tuesday warned Omicron was spreading at an unprecedented rate and urged countries to act as drug maker Pfizer said its coronavirus pill was effective against the variant.Dutch primary schools will close early as Europ...

US efforts to draw Britain, Canada and Australia into an alliance to counter space programme threats from China and Russia could escalate into a Star Wars-style space arms race, increasing regional instabilities, experts said.The warning follows the ...

US forced labour legislation that would ban imports from China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region inched closer to becoming law on Tuesday, when the House of Representatives passed a final iteration of the text that reconciled key differences betwe...

The Washington city government filed suit on Tuesday against two right-wing extremist groups for their role in the violent January 6 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of president Donald Trump.The lawsuit accuses the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and...

Donald Trump Jnr led a chorus of Trumpworld insiders who pleaded with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to convince the former president to end the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6.As the full House of Representatives prepa...

A massive fuel truck explosion killed at least 75 people in Haiti, after bystanders swarmed the vehicle to collect spilled fuel - a precious commodity in a nation plagued by acute shortages.The blast in Haiti’s second city of Cap-Haitien is the lat...

Two in five people infected with Covid-19 did not show symptoms and these cases need to be better managed to prevent community transmission, according to a global analysis by researchers from China’s Peking University.“Screening for asymptomatic ...

Britain will remove all 11 countries from its Covid-19 travel red list from Wednesday because there is now community transmission of Omicron, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament.The British government added the southern African countries to ...

China’s arms control envoy has called for international rules to be imposed on the use of artificial intelligence in the military to prevent an international arms race and the risk of human disaster.China’s arms control ambassador to the United N...