Some multinational firms in Hong Kong will continue to cover the quarantine costs of employees with overseas families in hopes of retaining talent in a city with possibly the most stringent Covid-19 entry restrictions in the world.Restaurant groups a...

Hong Kong has gone through a number of political changes since Beijing implemented a sweeping national security law in the city more than a year ago.The legislation has affected many in the opposition camp, resulting in the arrests of a number of act...

At the stroke of midnight as Hong Kong celebrated the New Year, civil servant Li and his wife welcomed their baby daughter into the world.Their child, born at the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital – Tsuen Wan and weighing 2.4kg, is the second daughter f...

The Chinese city of Xian reported its seventh straight day of more than 150 Covid-19 cases as the local leadership urged officials to make every effort to contain the disease.A total of 174 of the 175 nationwide local cases were reported in Xian as 2...

China has reopened its embassy in Nicaragua, a few weeks after the Central American country switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.That change was a political win for Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepp...

This is the first of a two-part series on land and those affected by the Northern Metropolis blueprint.Wong Chin-ming has been running an organic farm in San Tin for almost 16 years, serving loyal customers and Michelin-starred restaurants looking fo...

Hong Kong’s police chief has said more arrests linked to Stand News are not out of the question, days after seven with ties to the now-defunct online outlet were hauled in over accusations of publishing seditious content.Raymond Siu Chak-yee also h...

China has made a new breakthrough in its quest for clean fusion energy, as one of its “artificial suns” set a new record in sustained high temperatures, according to state media.The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), a nuclear ...

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen marked the new year with a message for mainland China: military conflict is not the answer.“We must remind the Beijing authorities to not misjudge the situation and to prevent the internal expansion of ‘military a...

At least 12 people died and 13 were injured in a stampede at a religious shrine in India in the early hours of Saturday as thousands of pilgrims massed to offer prayers, officials said.The disaster happened around 3am while it was still dark on the r...

For two decades, 65-year-old farmer Che Xiuyue had been troubled by osteophytes, bony lumps that grew on her knees, causing her unbearable pain and stiffness.In 2019, unable to stomach the discomfort any longer, she finally had surgery to treat them....

The euro on Saturday marked 20 years since people began to use the single European currency, overcoming initial doubts, price concerns and a debt crisis to spread across the region.Euro banknotes and coins came into circulation in 12 countries on Jan...

Queen Elizabeth announced a knighthood for former prime minister Tony Blair, while the traditional New Year’s Honours also decorated officials who spearheaded Britain’s fight against Covid-19.The Queen personally appointed Blair as Knight Compani...

Hong Kong is wrapping up its second year of the pandemic with a fresh Covid-19 scare involving the highly transmissive Omicron variant, one that follows warnings from health officials that “any spark could ignite the start of the fifth wave in the ...

Singaporean cuisine has long been the darling of cosmopolitan, well-travelled foodies – including more celebrity chefs than you can shake a fork at, the late Anthony Bourdain its loudest champion.But despite this cachet – as well as Singapore’s...

First of all, I want to kick off this edition of My Hong Kong with a big “thank you” to everyone who sent messages of support, personal anecdotes and some food for thought in response to my last column, titled “Cantonese is far from dead”.Ove...

Japan’s Emperor Naruhito offered prayers for those who died during the pandemic, taking to video for the second straight year for his New Year’s greeting on Saturday, having cancelled public palace gatherings to curb coronavirus infections.Sittin...

North Korea has wrapped up a key ruling-party meeting with leader Kim Jong-un calling for strengthening his military, thorough anti-pandemic measures and more efforts to resolve the country’s chronic food shortages, Pyongyang’s state media said o...

Tucked away in a busy shopping centre in Sheung Wan, amid the bright lights of electronic shops and nail bars, is a new store called “Until We Meet Again”.Its main attraction is a large 24-hour vending machine selling spicy pork snacks and ginger...

Last year has no doubt been difficult for Chinese developers and the pain could get worse in the new year for companies, homebuyers and investors alike. A liquidity crunch amid slowing home sales are likely to dominate sentiment.China Evergrande, Kai...

A government campaign in Japan urging people to drink more milk to help the domestic dairy industry tide over a supply glut has not gone down well with some consumers.The oversupply crisis this winter was triggered by a sharp drop in milk consumption...

1. Will Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion ‘American Rescue Plan’ be a boon for China, or could excessive liquidity lead to financial trouble?(Orange Wang and Amanda Lee – January 15, 2021)Latest US coronavirus stimulus package would put even more l...

China’s space programme is one of the fastest growing in the world.Less than 20 years after its first astronaut went to space in 2003, the country has launched satellites, space stations and rovers to Mars and the moon and has plans to explore Jupi...

Tennis star Emma Raducanu was named in Britain’s New Year Honours list on Friday – alongside a clutch of Olympic stars – in recognition of her stunning breakthrough victory at the US Open.Cyclists Jason and Laura Kenny – who have won 12 Olymp...

Hong Kong consumers will have to pay more for fresh produce, daily necessities and electrical goods over the next few weeks as shipping costs are expected to soar by up to 30 per cent due to Cathay Pacific’s suspension of long-haul cargo flights, i...

US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky will speak by phone on Sunday, after the US leader again warned that Russia’s Vladimir Putin would face a tough response to any invasion of the eastern European country.Using s...

In the final article of a three-part series to mark the second anniversary of Covid-19, Simone McCarthy looks at how vaccine inequity has become entrenched during the past 12 months of the pandemic.Rich countries, poor countries, pharmaceutical execu...

South Africans from all corners of retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s “rainbow nation” filed past his plain pine casket by the hundreds on Friday to pay their respects to his life of activism for equality for all races, creeds and sexual orienta...

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free-trade agreement between the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) members plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.The deal took effect in Australia,...

Comedic actress Betty White, who capped a career of more than 80 years by becoming America’s geriatric sweetheart after Emmy-winning roles on television sitcoms The Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, died less than three weeks shy of her 1...

Colorado officials said on Friday that it was a “miracle” that no deaths were reported in a rare urban fire that moved at breakneck speeds across towns north of Denver, destroying upwards of 1,000 homes.The fire was driven by wind gusts of 105 mi...

New post-Brexit custom rules for goods arriving from the European Union to Britain are taking effect on Saturday, and a leading food industry body has warned that the new border controls could lead to food shortages.Beginning on January 1, importers ...

Britain’s Prince Andrew has been asked to produce key documents to support an alibi that he did not have sex with an American accuser – including confirmation of a claim he did not sweat – in a case linked to a recent high-profile sex trafficki...

Sumit Gupta has had a big year – turning 30, getting married and seeing his startup become one of India’s newest tech unicorns.Hampered by the coronavirus pandemic and too busy expanding and getting funding for his cryptocurrency platform CoinDCX...

China has vowed to pull no punches when it comes to cracking down on tax evasion in 2022, as Beijing pushes for more equal distribution of wealth under its “common prosperity” policy, while pledging more tax cuts to stabilise economic growth.Auth...

President Xi Jinping has said China’s road to rejuvenation will be a bumpy one in a New Year’s Eve message that warned the country faced many challenges.“To realise the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will be no easy task like a walk i...

Chinese scientists say they have developed next-generation hypersonic weapons with technical breakthroughs in infrared homing technology – which the US military may not have until 2025.Heat-seeking capability allows Chinese hypersonic missiles to h...

Tens of thousands of revellers gathered on both sides of Hong Kong’s famed Victoria Harbour to ring in the new year, with many hoping for an end to the coronavirus pandemic and a return to normality in 2022.A new Covid-19 scare involving two commun...

A group of 120 Rohingya Muslims disembarked from a boat that had drifted for days off Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh and was towed by a navy ship into port, officials said on Friday.The refugees’ wooden boat was reportedly leaking and ...

China is expecting to see about 50 trillion yuan (US$7.85 trillion) in retail sales by 2025 as Beijing intends for consumption to play the role of a “ballast stone” to counter external headwinds, according to a five-year document released by mult...

Chinese aircraft carrier the Liaoning returned to its home port of Qingdao on Thursday after 20 days of training in the region, with the navy and state media saying it had been closely shadowed by a Japanese warship at one stage. The Liaoning and fi...

A former senior Washington official has said the United States and China must build mutual respect if they are to engage effectively.“We can’t really fix the high-level relationship until we get over these basic issues of trust and understanding ...

Tesla has raised the price of its Shanghai-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for the second time in just over a month amid soaring demand for its electric cars.The announcement came shortly before China’s market regulator said Tesla will recall nea...

Three people were killed in two horrific accidents on Hong Kong’s roads on New Year’s Eve.In Kowloon, two pedestrians died and three others were injured after a car mounted the pavement in the evening and crashed into an industrial unit beside a ...

Philippine officials on Friday warned against a rise in Covid-19 cases over the New Year period as infections in the Southeast Asian country hit a two-month high, amid concerns that the highly contagious Omicron variant of the virus could spread.The ...

China’s anti-corruption agency on Friday accused US retail giant Walmart Inc and its Sam’s Club chain of “stupidity and shorted-sightedness” after social media users alleged that Sam’s Club had removed Xinjiang-sourced products from stores....

China’s freeze on new video game licences is extending into 2022, dashing hopes that the process might resume by year-end, which has led many small gaming-related firms to close their operations and prompted the industry’s biggest publisher to pu...

China’s yuan was largely flat against the US dollar in holiday-thinned trade on Friday but still posted its second straight year of gains in 2021.The Chinese currency gained 2.44 per cent against a rising US dollar this year to become the best perf...

Zhang Jiaxin said he was “born with a short leg and a long leg” and, as a young child, pitied those poor people whose legs were of equal length.Or so the joke goes from one of China’s rising stars in stand-up comedy, a 27-year-old man with cere...