Spiking tensions between the United States and the United Arab Emirates over its close relationship with China are believed by analysts to be largely responsible for Abu Dhabi’s recent decision to freeze negotiations over the acquisition of F-35 wa...

The New Year is here, bringing new hopes as well as new challenges and changes.For Hong Kong, 2022 carries more significance as the city reaches the halfway mark on its 50-year journey under Beijing’s unique “one country, two systems” governing...

A major fire broke out in the South African parliament building in Cape Town on Sunday, with media coverage showing flames coming from the roof of the building and a plume of smoke that could be seen from some miles away.Firefighters were present at ...

New Covid-19 cases edged down slightly in Xian on New Year’s Day and thousands of tonnes of food were delivered to locked down residents, although complaints of food shortages continued as the city of 13 million grappled with China’s worst corona...

In November, the United States government added 12 more Chinese companies to its export blacklist, citing national security concerns. This time, quantum computing firms were among them.According to the US Commerce Department, some of the firms added ...

Members of the Russian and Czech Republic world junior hockey teams were removed from a New Year’s Eve flight from Calgary in Canada to Frankfurt, Germany, with fellow passengers saying the Russian squad caused a disturbance by smoking and refusing...

In my recent unsuccessful campaign for election to the Legislative Council, I recommended that the new members reach out to two groups of Hong Kong residents: young people and the international business community. Even though I will not be able to pa...

Singapore reported more Covid-19 infections among travellers from abroad than local cases for the first time in nearly half a year, testing the resolve of the city state to keep its borders open amid the worldwide spread of the Omicron variant.There ...

Fears over an Omicron coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong grew on Sunday, with the suspected infection of a family member of a patient linked to a restaurant cluster, as the city’s health minister earlier warned the situation was at a “tipping poin...

Air travel has been severely disrupted in the United States this weekend, with bad weather in parts of the country adding to the impact of a massive spike in Covid-19 infections fuelled by the Omicron variant.As of 11pm local time on Saturday, the US...

With just over a month until the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony, the chief executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) said he is increasingly concerned if the Games can go ahead as planned.“We’re worried,” David Shoemaker told ...

As the demand for plant-based diets grows around the world, more people are developing a taste for paneer, a cheese that has long been a staple for vegetarians in India.Soft and marble-white, the versatile paneer is a vital source of protein and calc...

Instead of spending New Year’s Eve back in China as she had planned, Alin found herself stranded in a strange US city.The 20-year-old, who arrived in the United States in August to study psychology, is one of the many Chinese students in a similar ...

China will continue to be the global leader in renewable energy capacity growth over the next five years, despite phasing out renewable subsidies and the country’s heavy reliance on coal, which will remain unchanged in 2022, according to analysts.T...

A South Korean has crossed the heavily fortified border in a rare defection to North Korea, Seoul said on Sunday.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it carried out a search operation after detecting the person at around 9:20pm on Saturda...

The diagnosis of former princess Mako’s post-traumatic stress disorder before her controversial marriage in October has once again highlighted the intense pressure that women in the Japanese imperial family face, with some other members also plague...

It’s never a bad time to be a billionaire, but this is an especially good time to have a 10-figure bank statement.The 10 richest people in the world added US$402 billion to their already enormous fortunes in 2021. The biggest gainer was Elon Musk, ...

Vietnam has criticised China’s zero-Covid policies as over the top after tight border controls caused a backlog of thousands of trucks and disrupted trade.“Pandemic prevention measures that Guangxi is applying under the ‘zero Covid’ policy, s...

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election, held under revamped electoral rules on December 19, was rebuked by the US-led Five Eyes coalition, G7 nations and the European Union as undermining Hong Kong people’s rights and freedoms and depriving the...

Despite the Philippines’ former dictator Ferdinand Marcos plundering government coffers and killing thousands during his rule under martial law, his son’s star continues to shine bright in the run-up to the country’s presidential election in Ma...

This is the second of a two-part series on land and those affected by the Northern Metropolis blueprint. Read part one here.At a Hong Kong coastal village that has been producing glossy golden dried oysters for more than 200 years, farmer Chan To-nga...

Footprints discovered on a south Wales beach could have been made more than 200 million years ago by an early relative of a dinosaur, experts believe.Palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum in London believe the footprints – known as a track...

Britain’s Prince Charles urged people in a New Year message to “take a moment” to recognise those “standing up for freedom and human rights” around the world.The heir to the British throne paid tribute to people in places such as Afghanista...

The body of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is to be reduced to dust by aquamation, a new cremation method using water that funerary parlours are touting as environmentally friendly.Like human composting, a technique of composting bodies with layers of organ...

China has been urged to create a multi-agency mechanism to secure supplies of critical minerals as a geopolitical leverage against the United States and its allies amid a global drive towards green energy.Experts studying the White House’s strategy...

Europe has recorded more than 100 million coronavirus cases, more than a third of all infections worldwide, since the start of the pandemic, an Agence France-Presse tally showed on Saturday.The continent has once again become the pandemic’s epicent...

Prince Andrew’s effort to immediately block the progression of a lawsuit by a woman who says he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 – on the grounds that she no longer lives in the US – was rejected by a federal judge as oral arguments were ...

Three people are missing after a fire tore through several Colorado towns, quickly destroying nearly 1,000 homes as part of the latest in a string of US natural disasters.“We’re very fortunate that we don’t have a list of 100 missing. But unfor...

Dutch police on Saturday broke up a rave in breach of Covid-19 rules that was attended by hundreds in a disused factory, local media reported.Dozens of police officers entered the makeshift venue in the central town of Rijswijk with hundreds more off...

France became the sixth country in the world to report more than 10 million Covid-19 infections since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to official data published on Saturday.French health authorities reported 219,126 new confirmed cases in a 2...

Britain experienced its warmest New Year’s Day on record after temperatures rose above 16 degrees Celsius (60.8 Fahrenheit) for the first time on January 1, the country’s Meteorological Office said.The mercury climbed to 16.2 degrees in St James�...

British Home Secretary Priti Patel has said she intends to “crack down” on eco-protesters and end the “legal merry-go-round” of “spurious” asylum seeker claims in 2022.In a New Year message posted on social media, Patel said she was proud...

The former chairman of the University of Hong Kong’s governing council has called a sculpture commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown a “sham”, prompting a war of words with the artwork’s creator.Arthur Li Kwok-cheung...

Military exchanges between Taiwan and the United States are expected to increase in both level and scope this year with both Congress and the White house supporting the island in strengthening its defences in the face of growing threats from Beijing....

An advertisement by French carmaker Citroën has stirred up controversy in Egypt after activists said it promoted sexual harassment in a country where the phenomenon is rampant.The ad by the Egyptian branch of Citroën, released last month, shows pop...

With countless carrots having failed to entice some Hongkongers to get vaccinated and the city facing a potential fifth wave of coronavirus infections driven by the Omicron variant, it is time for the government to pick up the stick, health experts a...

The Soviet Union’s collapse at the end of 1991, has weighed heavily on the minds of China’s leaders over the past three decades as they seek to avoid a similar fate.Observers argue its transition from a planned to a market economy that began in t...

At its Smart Life showroom in downtown Shenzhen, Huawei Technologies Co displays everything from tablets to vacuum cleaners as it seeks to woo consumers in China’s southern tech hub.But the most eye-catching offering from the Chinese technology gia...

President Cyril Ramaphosa lauded the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “our moral compass and national conscience” as South Africa bade farewell at a state funeral on Saturday to a hero of the struggle against apartheid.“Our departed father was a...

Pope Francis used his New Year’s message on Saturday to issue a clarion call for an end to violence against women, saying it was insulting to God.Francis, 85, celebrated a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica on the day the Roman Catholic Church marks bot...

China published on Saturday photos showing its Mars orbiter Tianwen-1 circling above the north pole of the red planet.The photo was taken by a detachable sensor equipped with two wide-angle lenses on the outer wall of the probe that was controlled fr...

France takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union on Saturday, affording President Emmanuel Macron the chance to pose as the EU’s de facto leader in the run-up to national elections in April.The 44-year-old has never made any secret o...

From transport to food to keeping the lights on, upwards pressure on prices for basic necessities is set to squeeze the pockets of Hongkongers in the new year.Beginning on Sunday, Citybus and New World First Bus will charge 3.2 per cent more for ride...

About 120km (75 miles) east of Cairo near the Suez Canal lies one of the biggest concentrations of Chinese investments in Egypt – part of the Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping’s trade and infrastructure development plan.Most of the m...

An Omicron outbreak tied to a Hong Kong restaurant has grown after another patron was suspected to have contracted Covid-19 while dining there this week, triggering a lockdown and throwing into jeopardy the launch of the government’s quarantine-fre...

A falling fertility rate compounded by an ageing population is a growing headache for China, impinging on nearly every aspect of the world’s second largest economy.China’s births fell by 18 per cent year on year in 2020 to just 12 million, down f...

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 Hong Kong Adventist Hospital – Tsuen Wan and weighing 2.4kg, is the second daughter for t...

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...