A China-Asean code of conduct for the disputed South China Sea is likely to miss its 2022 deadline, a Chinese military adviser has warned.Yao Yunzhu, a retired People’s Liberation Army major general, put the expected delay down to unresolved disput...

China sent a new Earth resources observation satellite into orbit on Sunday, the latest in a record year of Chinese space launches.Named Ziyuan-1 02E, the satellite was launched by a Long March 4C carrier rocket from the Taiyuan launch site in Shanxi...

Malaysia is seeking US$3 million from the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF) to develop a national plan to adapt to climate change, the environment ministry said last week, amid deadly floods that have displaced nearly 70,000 people this month.The funds req...

Japan conducted a drill last month at a remote southwestern island under the assumption that foreign forces had occupied Japanese-administered islands claimed by China, known as Diaoyu/Senkaku.Several government sources told Kyodo News that a drill i...

Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed announced Monday that he was suspending Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble, a day after the two men sparred over long-delayed elections in the troubled Horn of Africa nation.“The president decided t...

Hong Kong has confirmed 14 new cases involving the coronavirus’ Omicron variant, including 10 identified on Saturday – the most in a single day yet – as health authorities draw up contingency plans for potential worst-case scenarios.With the mo...

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has postponed verdicts it was expected to make in two cases in the trial of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to January 10, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.The court had been set to rule on charges ...

The eminent British-born China scholar and author Jonathan Spence has died, aged 85.Spence, a long-time Yale University professor and author of the 1990 bestselling book The Search for Modern China, died at his home in West Haven, Connecticut, on Sat...

As China has been bolstering its “zero-Covid” policy ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, many Japanese workers in the capital, who have not returned to their home country for around two years, remain cut off from their families.While urging cit...

Hui Ka-yan, the founder and chairman of heavily-indebted developer China Evergrande Group, is trying to rally his employees and deliver more homes as the year comes to a close.At a weekly meeting with company executives on Sunday, the 63-year-old bil...

From a ban on new foreign arrivals to a campaign against efforts to let non-citizens vote, a series of developments in Japan is raising new concerns about xenophobia in Asia’s second-largest economy.Lawmakers in the Tokyo suburb of Musashino overru...

Elderly Hong Kong residents and those battling illness have been warned to take extra precautions as temperatures plummeted to 9.9 degrees Celsius (49.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday morning, the coldest day of winter so far.An intense winter monsoon...

Roads, buildings and even the air in open spaces were disinfected on Sunday as part of China’s battle to bring a Covid-19 outbreak under control in the northwestern city of Xian.The city’s 13 million residents were given just a few hours’ notic...

Ten of this year’s most destructive weather events cost a combined US$170 billion in damages, according to a new study.Hurricane Ida, a tropical storm that pummelled much of the eastern US with lashing rain in August, killed at least 95 people and ...

The Communist Party and Chinese people are the drafters and defenders of Hong Kong’s emerging brand of democracy and own this “intellectual property”, mainland experts on city affairs have said while taking aim at “Western smears” of the re...

Singapore will cease sending people infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant to dedicated isolation facilities, and allow them to isolate at home or be treated in a community care facility instead, the Health Ministry said.“International evide...

With the Omicron variant of Covid-19 forcing Thailand to once again tighten entry rules for foreign visitors, real estate firms in the kingdom are relying on remote purchases by Chinese buyers to prop up the pandemic-battered market.Before the virus ...

A Hong Kong catering group has been donating HK$5 (64 US cents) to charity every time a customer orders selected dishes at one of their 18 outlets this December in a bid to promote the idea of sharing through food.Patrons enjoying steamed xiao long b...

More than half of Hong Kong’s 35 busiest polling stations in last Sunday’s Legislative Council election serviced voters from public housing estates, the Post has found, showcasing the pro-establishment bloc’s effectiveness in wooing low-income ...

Besides looking for a decent job, finding Mr right is the other important thing for 25-year-old Shannon Yang, who’s about to finish her postgraduate studies in Beijing.A shy woman whose classmates are mostly female, she decided to try a popular way...

FINGER LICKIN’ GOODI dropped a line to a friend of mine, Takamoto-san, a delightful housewife living on the outskirts of Tokyo, who in her former life worked as a financial translator in the hedge fund world. As convenience stores have flagged the ...

Hong Kong authorities are on the lookout for cross-border sea smugglers hoping to make a holiday season comeback after stepped-up enforcement resulted in more than HK$2.2 billion (US$282 million) worth of contraband products being seized so far this ...

An all-out battle to eliminate hotspots has been waged for months. Each time the Delta variant of the coronavirus has escaped into the community in China, authorities have moved in hard and fast to cut the chain of transmission.Communities have been ...

Hong Kong’s New Year’s Eve countdown concert will feature the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra performing with Canto-pop singers and boy band sensation Mirror.Organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and held at the arts hub in West Kowloon, it i...

A Missouri woman has been charged with killing her boyfriend with a sword on Christmas Eve.Cape Girardeau Police said 32-year-old Brittany Wilson was found outside the home she shared with her boyfriend Friday night with blood on her clothing, and a ...

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has good reason to celebrate Christmas this year, which, in fact, came early for her with a successful duty visit to Beijing. She was finally granted an audience at Zhongnanhai, where she received ...

After her lawsuit win, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, got a front-page apology from the British newspaper that published parts of a personal letter she wrote to her father.A high court ruled in favour of the former Meghan Markle earlier this year aft...

A major Israeli hospital will begin administering a fourth Covid-19 vaccine shot to 150 staff on Monday in a trial aimed at gauging whether a second booster is necessary nationwide, the facility said on Sunday.Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv said ...

A man armed with a crossbow who was arrested after attempting to break into Windsor Castle where Queen Elizabeth was celebrating Christmas is being held under the Mental Health Act, London’s police said on Sunday.The police said the 19-year-old fro...

Hong Kong authorities have put down 28 wild boars since November and will continue the practice of culling ones in urban areas with a view to protecting the public’s safety, according to the head of the city’s wildlife department.Leung Siu-fai, d...

Two prominent Hong Kong historians have said educators should be careful how they handle difficult subjects following an outcry over children being shown footage of the 1937 Nanking massacre, even as they stressed the importance of giving students th...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he would ponder a slew of options if the West fails to meet his push for security guarantees precluding Nato’s expansion to Ukraine.Earlier this month, Moscow submitted draft security documents demand...

An upgrade to a grouping of Turkic-speaking states is adding to “extreme uncertainty” in Central Asia, a heavyweight policy adviser to the Chinese government has warned.“[It] has swiftly transformed into its current form and it’s obvious that...

One sailor was dead and two others were missing after a fishing boat caught fire and sank in Hong Kong waters on Sunday.The Marine Department said they received a report at 11am that a Hong Kong-registered vessel was on fire off the coast of Sai Kung...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has renewed his call for the country to safeguard its grain supply and rural development, signalling continued concerns at the top about food security.During a Politburo Standing Committee meeting before the annual Centra...

Hong Kong police have arrested a 20-year-old man and two others after he allegedly faked his own kidnapping to extort a HK$300,000 (US$38,460) ransom from his mother.The mother reported to police on Friday that kidnappers had sent her video clips of ...

The economic slowdown in what was once China’s industrial heartland and a squeeze on local government debt has claimed its latest victim after a former coal-mining city in the northeast was forced to freeze its hiring process.Hegang, once a coal-ri...

Hong Kong’s finance chief has called on residents to provide their input for his next budget, which he says will be instrumental in seizing opportunities to revitalise the city’s economy.Writing on his blog on Sunday, Financial Secretary Paul Cha...

The digital silk road featured prominently in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s keynote speech to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), in which he promised that Beijing would fund 10 digital economy projects in the continent over the next th...

Spitting rain and a cold weather warning kept some Hongkongers at home on Boxing Day, but the gloomy conditions were not enough to discourage shoppers from packing an annual food fair.The Hong Kong Food Festival, now in its 19th year, has logged thou...

The coronavirus that causes Covid-19, Sars-CoV-2, can spread within days from the airways to the heart, brain and almost every organ system in the body, where it may persist for months, a study found.In what they describe as the most comprehensive an...

Hong Kong confirmed nine new imported coronavirus cases on Sunday including a Cathay Pacific aircrew member whose infection triggered mandatory testing of all residents in his Tung Chung building, while the Omicron variant unleashed worldwide travel ...

Hong Kong has seized more endangered timber this year, mainly prized sandalwood and rosewood, as international criminals switched to sending their illegal cargo through the city by air rather than sea.The change of tactics during the coronavirus pand...

A Chinese consulate in the United States has lodged a protest with an American airline after one of its China-bound flights returned to the US midway through the journey.“Several China-bound flights have been delayed or canceled recently, with one ...

“Like falling in love” is how Archbishop Desmond Tutu described voting in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, a remark that captured both his puckish humour and his profound emotions after decades fighting apartheid.Desmond Mpilo ...

The South China Morning Post film China’s Rebel City: The Hong Kong Protests has won Best Documentary Feature at the Cannes World Film Festival for the month of November.The documentary beat out two other finalists: Absolute Power: Nasdaq Exposed, ...

A 25-year-old motorcyclist riding on a probationary licence died after crashing headlong into a car on Hong Kong’s Shek O Road on Sunday, the latest in a string of accidents in the scenic area.At 7.22am, the male motorcyclist, surnamed Lee, was tra...

Stella Monica Hendrawan thought nothing of it when she took to Instagram to complain about a bad experience she’d had at a beauty clinic in Indonesia two years ago.In her post, the 26-year-old Chinese-Indonesian claimed the acne treatment she recei...

Hong Kong’s Social Welfare Department has been ordered to launch an internal investigation into an abuse case that saw three child care workers arrested last week, the minister who oversees it has said, warning those involved could be deregistered....

Spending months at sea is part of the job for Chinese crewmen like Geng, but as the coronavirus pandemic drastically alters the way people move around the world, the stretches away from home are getting longer and longer.After finishing a seven-month...