The acute stage of the pandemic could come to an end in 2022, the World Health Organization chief said on Wednesday, as the UN agency marked two years since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.But exiting the crisis will partly depend on whether the w...

China will extend some personal income tax breaks, with certain measures to benefit high earners more, as the government seeks to encourage household spending as part of efforts to stimulate economic growth.Preferential taxes on year-end bonuses will...

An Australian defence review has found there are no national security grounds to overturn the 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company, following calls to abandon the deal.The recommendation from the review makes it more difficult for...

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s marriage is officially over more than 10 years after the award-winning journalist petitioned to end her then-25-year marriage to the action star and former California governor.A Los Angeles judge finalised ...

North Korea on Thursday urged its 1.2 million troops to unite behind leader Kim Jong-un and defend him with their lives, as the country celebrated the 10th anniversary of Kim’s ascension to supreme commander of the military.The anniversary comes as...

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has said she hopes there will be “good news” soon on the long-awaited reopening of the border with mainland China, while adding that combating Covid-19 will remain a top priority for the government in t...

Hong Kong’s leader has hit back at critics over her government’s arrest of seven people that prompted the closure of the Stand News online portal, declaring there is no suppression of press freedom in the city and insisting that journalists are n...

Singapore will play the role of a “connecting hub” during the Beijing Winter Olympics by ferrying athletes and delegates from the region to the Chinese capital, officials on Wednesday said, amid growing uncertainty over the Games given the rapid ...

Hong Kong police and customs officers have seized HK$17 million (US$2.2 million) worth of contraband sea cucumber on a vessel believed to be smuggling it out of the city, arresting seven in the process.Revealing the joint operation on Thursday, autho...

Zhang Qijing left China for the United Kingdom in October last year to pursue a master’s degree she hoped would help her change her career path. Business at the inbound travel agency she worked for was decimated by coronavirus pandemic travel restr...

The ancient bathhouses of Syria’s second city Aleppo are filling up again, not because of a revived fad, but because of power cuts that have made hot showers a luxury.“We mainly rely on electricity to heat water at home, but the electricity is cu...

Many residents in China’s northwestern city of Xian are running out of food as the city enters its eighth day of lockdown in an effort to contain the latest cluster of Covid-19 cases.There were 156 new locally transmitted cases reported nationwide ...

South Korea should not feel forced to take sides between the US and China, and instead take its rightful place on the world stage as the 10th largest economy and a leading military power, according to presidential hopeful Lee Jae-myung.He added that ...

A destitute Indian woman who claims she is heir to the dynasty that built the Taj Mahal has demanded ownership of an imposing palace once home to the Mughal emperors.Sultana Begum lives in a cramped two-room hut nestled within a slum on the outskirts...

A deal with Mexico to supply 35 million Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine doses was slashed by more than half earlier this year when it became clear the order would not be met by September as agreed, according to three people familiar with the matter.A M...

To the casual observer, Hong Kong’s main pro-establishment parties emerged big winners in the first Legislative Council poll held since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system.The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong...

The decision by a Beijing-backed forum to feature disgraced former premier Najib Razak as its keynote speaker has sparked fierce criticism among some in Malaysia’s business and diplomatic community.Najib, who was convicted of seven charges related ...

A woman in central China’s Hunan province spent 100,000 yuan (US$15,700) renting 520 drones to celebrate her pet dog’s birthday.The drones were organised to form Chinese characters to spell: “Happy 10th birthday to Doudou” while flying above ...

2021 has been a tough 12 months. The world is now two years into living through a global pandemic, with all the lockdowns, outbreaks and travel restrictions that come with it and – especially with the emergence of the new Omicron variant – there ...

Global leaders who have pledged to halt deforestation by 2030 must move quickly to strengthen forest protection laws, line up funding, and include indigenous people in conservation efforts to have the best chance of success, environmentalists say.Mor...

People receiving their third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine have outnumbered those getting their first and second since the booster shots became available last month, but experts have warned that the overall pace is still slow and the city remains vulner...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia and Belarus will hold joint war games early next year.Putin welcomed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s proposal to hold another round of military drills, saying that they could b...

The last two months of 2021 have clearly indicated that Africa will be centre stage for geoeconomic competition by major economic blocs next year.The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held in Dakar, Senegal, in late November, with the Chinese gov...

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty by a US jury on Wednesday of helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls, sealing a remarkable fall from grace for the British socialite.Maxwell, 60, was accused of recruiting and groomin...

Game-changing pills for the treatment of Covid-19 could soon be manufactured around the world, adding what medical experts hope will be a critical tool to blunt the sharp edge of the pandemic.The US gave its authorisation last week for two Covid-19 t...

Chilean scientists studying organisms in one of the most remote places on Earth are urging regional leaders to step up efforts to tackle climate change.A recent expedition, which was delayed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, sought to invest...

Even as the US experiences a strong surge in new cases of Covid-19, America’s top infectious disease expert said on Wednesday that a transition to life without strict pandemic controls could begin within “months”.Citing studies of the increasin...

Beijing’s decision to raise the import quota for Australian wool next year does not signify a thaw in relations between the two countries, only that China relies on the fibre too much to let it become the “victim of trade tension”.Beijing set i...

Top US and Russian officials for Iran have met in Vienna, Russia’s envoy to the nuclear talks said on Wednesday, and delegates on both sides said Moscow and Washington were coordinating in a bid to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.Russia’s Mikh...

US President Joe Biden will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the White House said, as Washington crafts a common response to Russia’s military build-up on the Ukraine border with European allies.Biden and Putin will discuss ...

Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested another three workers from a long-established child protection group as two more young victims of abuse were identified.At least 20 children are now believed to have been abused at the Hong Kong Society for the ...

More than 1.63 million people worldwide were reported to have Covid-19 on Wednesday, the third day in a row with more than a million infections, as the Omicron variant continues to spread.The number will smash the global record set on Monday, with 1....

Airlines in Hong Kong have been told that crew working on non-mainland China passenger flights will lose all quarantine-related exemptions effective midnight on Wednesday, the Post has learned.The government told airlines of the latest changes to its...

The recent near-misses involving Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites and China’s Tiangong space station have highlighted Beijing’s concerns about space becoming weaponised.Chinese observers said Washington wants to maintain its dominance in space a...

The writing was on the wall for Stand News after the national security police crackdown that led to the closure of Apple Daily back in June over the tabloid-style paper’s pro-protest and anti-China reporting.Weeks ago, Hong Kong’s security chief ...

Alibaba Group Holding’s in-house research academy has identified artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific research and photonic chips for data centres as top tech trends to watch for.In a top 10 list of tech predictions for 2022 and beyond, the D...

Hong Kong’s biggest property sales agency plans to take further legal action against a subsidiary of China Evergrande Group to recoup “unpaid commission” from the troubled developer.Centaline Property Agency said it will apply through the court...

China has hit back at discriminatory restrictions and “double standards” aimed at preventing the wider spread of nuclear weapons amid a growing technology rivalry with the United States and increasing concern in Washington over Beijing’s expand...

Ten transitional flats in Central’s SoHo area will soon be available to low-income families for rents of up to HK$6,350 (US$814), in the latest batch of transitional housing projects approved by the government.An assessment committee from the Trans...

Hong Kong authorities have launched a pilot scheme to recognise community-organised events as official celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from British to Chinese rule next July.The new policy was announced along with 1...

Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office has called on Taiwanese artists to pursue moral values and decency, following the controversy over the divorce of Taiwanese-American star Wang Leehom.Ma Xiaoguang, a Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman, said mainland Chi...

Six people have been arrested in Iraq after a Chinese private oil services company escaped damage in a rocket and gunfire attack.There was gunfire outside the premises of Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group Corporation (ZPEC) in the southern pro...

Michael Yu Minhong, the founder, chairman and chief executive of New Oriental Education & Technology Group, has added live-streaming e-commerce host to his illustrious career, following Beijing’s crackdown on the country’s once high-flying off-ca...

The Philippines signed a deal with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries to buy two corvettes to form part of the navy’s dream fleet and to increase its defence capabilities amid rising tensions in the South China Sea.While the navy’s long-del...

A Chinese panda cub born to giant pandas Kai Kai and Jia Jia in Singapore has been named following the results of a public vote announced on Wednesday.The winning name with the highest number of votes was Le Le. According to the public vote website, ...

The Taliban has a long way to go to show it can effectively govern Afghanistan after it seized power, according to a Chinese academic who has just visited the neighbouring country.“Although the Taliban have absorbed some former government personnel...

A doctor has sued the Hong Kong police chief for more than HK$6.7 million (US$859,044) over a fire at his residence and office that was allegedly caused by tear gas deployed during the 2019 social unrest.In a writ filed against the commissioner of po...

The role of lawyers as middlemen in residential mortgage transactions is to be abolished under new rules designed to protect Hong Kong homebuyers.The change will allow a bank to pay the mortgage loan secured by a homebuyer directly into the bank acco...

A cosmetics and skin care products company founded by married Taiwanese actors Zhang Ting and Lin Ruiyang has had assets worth 600 million yuan (US$94 million) frozen due to an investigation by China’s market regulator over an alleged pyramid schem...

China has unveiled a set of ambitious goals to enhance automation in manufacturing, as it strives to become a global leader in bringing robots to the factory floor.Under a five-year plan jointly published by several government agencies, including the...