Twenty-one Hong Kong demonstrators have been jailed for up to 3½ years for taking part in a riot near Beijing’s liaison office during the social unrest in 2019.Following a District Court-level trial, the 15 men and six women, aged between 21 and 4...

The southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen is bracing for more Covid-19 cases after two infections of unknown source were discovered during routine screening.The Shenzhen Health Commission on Friday night said the infections were of the Delta variant,...

When Indonesian President Joko Widodo officiated the groundbreaking ceremony last month on what has been touted as the world’s largest green industrial estate, he said it would spur the country’s “economic transformation” from raw material ex...

More evidence has emerged that vaccination might be able to reduce the chances of long Covid – or symptoms that linger for weeks or months after an initial Covid-19 infection.However, although vaccines are known to be able to reduce the severity of...

Nine people have died and hundreds have fallen ill with diarrhoea in areas of the Philippines wrecked by a typhoon last month, with aid officials warning of a health crisis as millions struggle to secure clean water and food.Three weeks after Typhoon...

Traffickers of a common date rape drug will face stiffer penalties in Hong Kong than those caught with cannabis resin, under new sentencing guidelines issued by the Court of Appeal recently.Culprits will now face six to 12 months’ jail for traffick...

A Texas business owner, whose recent tweet that “Chinese students should be banned from attending all Texas universities”, is facing strong criticism, including from a US state representative who says the statements are hateful and could incite v...

Hong Kong’s burgeoning Omicron outbreak took a troubling turn on Saturday, with officials confirming the city’s first local untraceable Covid-19 case in three months involving a goods handler who worked in multiple supermarkets.The goods handler ...

Hong Kong’s top health official has said that the city may have to resort to home quarantine if places in isolation facilities run out, while experts have warned that a wave of coronavirus infections brought on by the Omicron variant could be more ...

Citigroup was the first major Wall Street bank to impose a strict Covid-19 vaccine mandate: Get a shot or face termination. With its deadline fast approaching, the company is preparing for action.Office workers who do not comply by January 14 will be...

Thousands of Myanmar villagers are living under makeshift tents alongside a river that borders Thailand, fearful of returning to homes which they said had been bombarded by military air strikes but reluctant to seek refuge across the frontier.Heavy f...

China is seeking to fast-track a second channel to double the supply of natural gas from “comprehensive strategic partner” Russia, which could give Beijing an upper hand in dealing with Canberra, according to analysts.The Power of Siberia 2 gas p...

Tennis world number one Novak Djokovic began a third day in Australian immigration detention on Saturday, joined by Czech women’s player Renata Voracova as a blame game between Australian authorities over handling of Covid-19 vaccine exemptions gat...

Israel recently reported its first case of a simultaneous Covid-19 and seasonal influenza infection, refreshing fears of a more such co-infections.While the case – involving an unvaccinated pregnant woman – has received global attention, this is ...

Wang Gang, a former vice-president with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding and head of its autonomous driving lab in the DAMO Academy, has quit to start his own business, becoming the latest top scientist to leave a Chinese Big Tech firm.Alibaba,...

When Keiko Pun graduated in 2017 from City University of Hong Kong, she aspired to use her degree in environmental science and management to create what she called “positive impact.”She landed a job a year later at China Road and Bridge Corporati...

British national Anne is preparing to leave Hong Kong, a place she has called home for the past seven years.Her family “adores” the city of 7.5 million, but she is giving up its seasons and scenic country parks for Singapore’s urban landscape. ...

What’s in a name? For Indian travel start-up founder Kovid Kapoor, it has made him a social media sensation.The 31-year-old’s Twitter profile declares: “My name is Kovid and I am not a virus.”He posted this week that he had travelled outside ...

The controversy over Monday’s big party attended by dozens of Hong Kong officials and lawmakers in the midst of an outbreak of Covid-19 cases has raised questions about possible breaches of pandemic rules.Lawyers who examined photographs of the eve...

China is building its first “free trade port for data” with an investment of 31.8 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in Nansha, Guangzhou city as part of the country’s efforts to build up controllable cross-border information flows, according to state...

A court in Hunan province, central China, has issued the country’s first ruling based on a new law regulating parental behaviour which took effect at the start of this year.The court in Tianxin district of Changsha city, Hunan province, central Chi...

If there is one thing Witman Hung Wai-man enjoys, according to those who know him well, it is having a big birthday bash with many guests, where drinks flow, karaoke fills the air and everyone has a good time.People close to the flamboyant personalit...

A US woman was charged after authorities allege she placed her 13-year-old son in the boot of her car in an attempt to isolate him after he had tested positive for Covid-19 and then took him to a drive-through testing site.The 41-year-old is charged ...

China has been urged to look for ways to mend ties with Japan and push forward three-way security talks involving Tokyo and Washington.Zhang Tuosheng, director of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University, wrote in an ...

A US judge on Friday sentenced a Missouri man to 28 years in prison – the maximum he could impose – for the 2019 killing of his wife, whose body he buried in a state park and whose death he misled the authorities about for more than a year.The se...

Ethiopia has freed several opposition leaders from prison, the state broadcaster reported on Friday, as the government said it would begin dialogue with political opponents after 14 months of war when thousands of people have been arrested.The move t...

The US government on Friday pledged “massive consequences” against Moscow if an upcoming bilateral security dialogue fails to prevent any further build-up by Russia’s military on the border with Ukraine.The massing of troops and military equipm...

On January 3, Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged celebratory messages with  Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and the country’s founding father, Nursultan Nazarbayev, to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the tw...

A US judge in Georgia sentenced Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael on Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for what he called the “chilling” 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black-American man running through t...

If teaching your 16-year-old how to drive was rough, imagine how tough it is to teach a goldfish.In a peer-reviewed study published in December, scientists aimed to do just that by training goldfish to drive a “fish-operated vehicle” – or FOV �...

A Berlin court on Friday found a former teacher guilty for murdering a man as part of a cannibal fantasy after meeting him online, sentencing him to life in prison.The presiding judge noted the acute severity of the crime committed by Stefan R., who ...

The United States will step up economic engagement with countries in Asia in 2022, White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said this week.Campbell, a key official shaping the Biden administration’s Asia policy, said that Washington would...

Hospitalisations of US children under five with Covid-19 soared in recent weeks to their highest level since the pandemic began, according to government data released Friday on the only age group not yet eligible for the vaccine.The worrisome trend i...

When Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol a year ago, it was hard to imagine him ever returning to the White House. But with under three years left before the 2024 US presidential election and with Joe Biden and Trump running neck-and-neck...

Sidney Poitier, Hollywood’s first major Black-American movie star and the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar, has died at 94, prompting an outpouring of grief from the entertainment industry and beyond.Stars including Denzel Washington alo...

Hong Kong’s pro-establishment politicians have closed ranks in defending top officials caught in the scandal over a birthday banquet where they were exposed to at least two coronavirus patients, arguing there is no need for the most high-profile pa...

James Corden is the latest US television talk show host to test positive for coronavirus. Sharing the news online, The Late Late Show host said he felt “completely fine” but that the CBS show would be off air for several days.“I just tested pos...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a message to his counterpart in Kazakhstan, saying Beijing opposes any attempts by foreign forces to stir up trouble in the country.Xi told President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev that China was willing to support the co...

The world’s attention has been drawn to Kazakhstan in recent days after dozens of people were killed in clashes on the streets and protesters torched and ransacked public buildings in several cities.The violence is the worst seen in the Central Asi...

Alibaba Group Holding has restructured the back-end operations of its core Chinese online retail platforms Taobao Marketplace and Tmall, as the e-commerce giant moves to bolster its lead in the world’s second-largest economy amid increased competit...

The China arm of the world’s largest retailer Walmart Inc has received a warning from police in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen for breaches of cybersecurity laws, as the country tightens its grip over how data is handled by businesses.The public...

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, 96, has been admitted to hospital for an elective medical procedure, the National Heart Institute said on Friday.It is the second time in as many months that Mahathir has been hospitalised at the spec...

China said it “fully understands” North Korea’s decision to miss next month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, after Pyongyang blamed its inability to attend on the Covid-19 pandemic and “hostile forces” led by the US intent on preventing the “...

A protein-based Covid-19 booster vaccine made by Sinopharm elicited a stronger antibody response against the Omicron variant when given as a booster after two doses of an earlier shot from the Chinese firm than a third dose of the original, a study s...

China has made a fresh push this week to convince consumers to try out the digital yuan, with the country’s top government body endorsing the wider use of the electronic currency in various scenarios.The State Council, China’s Cabinet, said in a ...

Pakistan’s recent hint that all-weather ally China supplied it with advanced J-10C warplanes has signalled the beginning of an arms race with arch-rival India, as New Delhi takes delivery of a fleet of French-built fighter jets to counter the threa...

The Beijing branch of global convenience store giant 7-Eleven has been fined 150,000 yuan (US$23,500) for displaying “incomplete maps of China”, according to an official notice.The map used on the official website of 7-Eleven Beijing “wrongly p...

China has built a certain level of herd immunity against Covid-19 but will need to boost its power to fight variants, the country’s top respiratory expert said.Addressing a forum in the southern city of Guangzhou on Thursday, Zhong Nanshan said Chi...

Hong Kong police have arrested another eight employees of a scandal-rocked child protection group and identified six more victims who were allegedly abused at its Mong Kok location.A force insider said it was possible officers would make further arre...

Hong Kong health officials are warning of exponential growth in Covid-19 cases and invisible transmission chains spreading in the community, as an Omicron cluster expanded to several circles including a dance group, politicians, churchgoing domestic ...