Media and workers have to stay in approved hotels within the "loop" -- the organisers' alternative name for a coronavirus bubble, designed to protect participants from the virus and the Chinese population from the foreign mini-invasion. Wire fences...

The Purchasing Managers' Index -- a key gauge of manufacturing activity -- in the world's second-largest economy inched down to 50.1, just above the 50-point mark separating growth from contraction. The data from the National Bureau of Statistics (...

The sprawling megacity's 20 million inhabitants are accustomed to year-round weather extremes, from blistering summer heat to torrential downpours and thick, toxic smog at the end of autumn. Still, the bracing chill and blustery rains this month h...

The Czech pair battled from a set down to come through 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena and go one better than last year when they were runners up to Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka. "I want to thank my partner Katerina," said Krejcikova, t...

Vaccine scepticism is rampant in the country's north, where clerics and monks play a key role in the lives of their followers, often serving as a personal confessor. Earlier this month dozens gathered to celebrate the nameday of Abbot Maximos in th...

Every winter, the skies over Italy's capital are filled with the mesmerising sight of thousands of starlings swooping and diving in unison. But when they stop to rest on the trees, their droppings coat the pavements and cars below -- prompting the ...

The former mayor of Lisbon took the reins in 2015 following a ballot in which his Socialists finished second behind a centre-right coalition that had overseen a harsh EU-imposed austerity programme. In a surprise move, he convinced two smaller hard...

A late surge by the opposition centre-right PSD party has clawed away the ruling Socialists' once comfortable poll lead, with the two sides in a statistical tie according to final surveys. With one in ten voters still undecided according to recent ...

Top seed Barty's triumph at the Australian Open on Saturday earned her a third Slam after the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon last year. But getting her hands on the trophy at Flushing Meadows to complete a career Grand Slam of all four majors is...

The Warriors' victory in San Francisco was just one close shave on a night that saw the Toronto Raptors edge the Eastern Conference-leading Miami Heat 124-120 in a triple-overtime thriller and the Philadelphia 76ers rally for a 103-101 victory over ...

The remote Himalayan nation of around 800,000 people, sandwiched between China and India, has recorded fewer Covid fatalities than almost anywhere else in the world. The only places with lower official tolls are a small handful of remote Pacific is...

Chen, 30, needs to get her nose or throat swabbed a grand total of five times to ensure passage home to eastern Zhejiang province and back. "I was not planning to go home this year, either. But after thinking how I haven't been back for two years, ...

The 25-year-old achieved the feat by becoming the Australian Open's first home champion in 44 years when she came from 1-5 down in the second set of Saturday's final to beat Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6 (7/2). It followed her breakthrough French Open ...

His parents, Chinese immigrants Hetty Wang and Chen Zhidong, got him figure skates instead -- and changed the course of the sport in the process. Nathan Chen enters this week's Beijing Olympics chasing the only major prize that has eluded him, a go...

Until recently, "the most modern machine we had was the tractor", Aamer Hayat Bhandara, a farmer and local councillor behind one such project told AFP in "Chak 26", a village in the agricultural heartland of Punjab province. Even making mobile phon...