Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s ambitious effort to pivot his conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. toward green energy could transform India into a clean-hydrogen juggernaut.Ambani, Asia’s richest man, announced plans earlier this month to invest US...

In 2017, when Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was appointed the World Health Organization’s director general with an overwhelming two-thirds majority vote, Ethiopia was ecstatic.One of their own, and the first African, had become the head of the UN heal...

Taiwan Vice-President William Lai used his final day in the United States to repeat an accusation that China blocked the island from obtaining Covid-19 vaccines last year, and to thank a US lawmaker for her role in donating the inoculations.In May, T...

Israel looks set to strengthen a mechanism it set up to vet Chinese investments for security concerns, amid mounting pressure from key ally the United States.Jerusalem established its foreign investment oversight committee in October 2019 at Washingt...

Macau’s judiciary police have arrested two businessmen in connection with an illegal cross-border gambling and money-laundering syndicate linked to former “junket king” Alvin Chau Cheok-wa.The two men, aged 49 and 34, refused to cooperate after...

Bhutan’s success in avoiding coronavirus is almost unrivalled but a rare patient death – just the kingdom’s fourth – shows more work was needed to fight the pandemic there, its leader says.The remote Himalayan nation of around 800,000 people,...

Hong Kong’s daily coronavirus caseload has dropped into double digits for the first time in more than a week on Sunday, though a top health official warned that the proportion of untraceable cases had also grown.The city confirmed 81 new infections...

China’s top economic planners have pledged to crack down on the speculative trading of iron ore and stabilise the domestic market after “abnormal” price rises in recent weeks.State planning body the National Development and Reform Commission (N...

Malaysia’s Human Resources Ministry said on Sunday it would call in all companies facing US import bans over suspected forced labour practices to discuss immediate action to address the allegations.Malaysian factories, which include major suppliers...

Hong Kong families struggling amid a shortage of domestic helpers have yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel, after the number of such workers in the past two years hit a new low of about 339,000, the city’s labour chief has said.Writing on...

The number of cases involving illegal firearms and ammunition fell by 65 per cent in 2021 from a year ago after the national security law was imposed in Hong Kong, according to the Customs and Excise Department.In an annual review of last year, the d...

Donald Trump, the former US president, has said if he were to run again in 2024 and win, he would pardon people charged with criminal offences in connection with the deadly January 6 assault by his supporters on the US Capitol.Trump, who has not said...

The outbreaks have been sporadic but the response has been swift and hard.Over the last two years of the pandemic, Chinese authorities have reacted to community cases of the coronavirus with sudden lockdowns and mass testing in a strategy that has be...

At the one-year mark of the Myanmar coup, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s Tatmadaw – as the military is known – is enduring a prolonged battle of attrition with anti-junta forces, with some reports suggesting soldiers on the front lines are ov...

A pregnant New Zealand journalist denied re-entry to her home country to give birth said she has instead been offered refuge by the Afghan Taliban.“This just feels like such a breach of trust,” Charlotte Bellis told Radio New Zealand on Sunday fr...

Expansion of China’s factory activities slowed in January amid repeated Covid-19 outbreaks and the seasonal disruption to production ahead of the Lunar New Year, data released on Sunday showed.The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index...

A Hong Kong non-fungible token (NFT) project is trying to stand out among a flurry of NFT projects featuring cartoon tigers by using the digital collectibles to support charity.The Endangered Tigers is an NFT collection of 5,888 cartoon tigers that w...

North Korea on Sunday tested its most powerful missile since 2017, ramping up the firepower for its record-breaking seventh launch this month as Seoul warned nuclear and long-range tests could be next.Pyongyang has never test-fired this many missiles...

When renowned Singaporean ophthalmologist and scientist Wong Tien Yin agreed to take up a position at China’s top Tsinghua University last year, he felt he was making, as he describes it, a major “leap of faith”.China’s strict border controls...

Sixteen-year-old Guizhou native Guo Ying had just finished eating dinner one evening last February when her best friend announced that the car taking them to work further south in China had arrived. Recruited on social media by someone her friend ha...

Hong Kong’s best known soothsayers agree the Year of the Tiger promises a smooth ride for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, but none is prepared to say if she will lead the city for another five years.There was no shortage of predictions ...

China’s newest combat drone – aimed at competing with the American MQ-1C Grey Eagle – has completed its maiden flight, as its state-owned developer adds to its fleet, and potentially its overseas market.After the Wing Loong-1E’s test flight o...

Britain is considering making a major Nato deployment as part of a plan to strengthen Europe’s borders in response to Russia massing troops on the border with Ukraine, the government said on Saturday.Britain has said that any Russian incursion into...

Russia says it will relocate naval exercises off the coast of Ireland after Dublin raised concerns about them amid a tense dispute with the West over expansion of the Nato alliance and fears that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine.The February 3-8...

About 50 people were sentenced to death in Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday in connection with the murders of UN experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp in 2017, a human rights group tracking the trial said.A local immigration official was am...

An American woman who allegedly led an all-female Islamic State battalion in Syria has been charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist group, the US Justice Department announced on Saturday.The woman, identified as Allison Fluke-E...

Despite reports that he is retiring, NFL quarterback Tom Brady has told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he has not made up his mind, two people familiar with the details told Associated Press.ESPN first reported Brady’s retirement on Saturday, citing unid...

Thousands of protesters gathered in Canada’s capital on Saturday to protest against vaccine mandates, masks and lockdowns.The sounds of honking horns echoed around Ottawa’s downtown core. A convoy of lorries and cars parked around Parliament Hill...

Italy’s head of state Sergio Mattarella agreed on Saturday to serve a second term, senior politicians said, after parties failed to find a mutually acceptable alternative candidate in a week of often fraught voting in parliament.Mattarella, 80, had...

The governor of a province in eastern Thailand on Saturday declared a state of emergency after an oil slick washed up on a sand beach, shutting down restaurants and shops in a setback for the pandemic-hit tourism industry.Some 20-50 tonnes of oil are...

World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday announced an investigation into a “senior staff” member, the UN agency’s Western Pacific chief, over claims of racism and misconduct.“We have been aware of some concerns si...

A winter storm lashed the north-east United States with deep snow and wind gusts near hurricane force on Saturday, causing coastal flooding and threatening widespread power outages while forecasters warned conditions would worsen as the day went on.P...

France plans to send several hundred soldiers to Romania as part of a possible deployment on Nato’s eastern flank, Defence Minister Florence Parly said on Saturday amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.French President Emmanuel Macron had rec...

A woman has died due to strong winds in Scotland as storm Malik bears down on parts of Europe.The woman was struck by a tree in the city of Aberdeen, police reported on Saturday.Wind speeds of almost 140km per hour have been measured on Scotland’s ...

Samsung Electronics Co’s semiconductor factory in Austin, Texas, spilled acidic waste for months, killing aquatic life in a tributary nearby, a probe showed.The amount of acidic waste that entered the tributary is unknown, and there is “no measur...

Parents of a baby girl in Hong Kong have complained that the Department of Health continues to list the girl’s Covid-19 status as indeterminate even after she repeatedly tested negative in hospital.The girl was discharged from hospital on Saturday,...

Next week’s UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine could help ease tensions between Moscow and Kyiv, but the two countries should engage in direct dialogue, according to Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun.Tensions have risen in Euro...

Oil washing up on a beach on Thailand’s east coast could be the “nail in the coffin” for pandemic-hit hotels and restaurants, local hospitality businesses said Saturday.The Thai navy and pollution experts are scrambling to clean up Tuesday nigh...

Children from low-income families in Hong Kong are not getting enough nutrients in at least one of five categories of food, with nine out of 10 children not consuming enough dairy, a survey has found.The poor diet could affect their physical and ment...

Police in Laos have seized their second huge haul of methamphetamine in three months, a development that a UN expert on the illicit drug trade said Saturday reflects a breakdown of security in Southeast Asia.Jeremy Douglas, the regional representativ...

Hong Kong’s property buyers stayed home over the weekend, handing Wheelock Properties the first sales slump in more than 12 months as a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus disease sent the market into an early recess three days before the Lunar New Y...

Eleven people have been arrested after a deadly clash at a nightclub in Indonesia’s easternmost region, police said on Saturday.The fight erupted on Tuesday in Sorong, a relatively quiet city in West Papua province, and 18 people were killed, most ...

At least one person was injured in multiple bomb attacks in Thailand’s southern province of Yala, police said on Saturday.At least 13 small explosions struck the town of Yala late on Friday, mostly on roadsides in front of convenience stores, shops...

Hong Kong’s streets were awash with residents on Saturday buying food and flowers for the approaching Lunar New Year but Covid-19 social-distancing rules and higher prices put a damper on some of the festivities.Ronald Tong, 48, an electrical mecha...

Three dozen more cases of Covid-19 have been detected among Olympic Games-related personnel in China, seven of them within the event’s “closed loop”, organisers said on Saturday.The Beijing Winter Olympics organising committee said 29 of the 36...

China plans to require companies providing deepfake and similar artificial intelligence (AI) services to verify the identities of their users and promote Chinese socialist values, according to a draft regulation released by the country’s top cybers...

Indonesia is bracing for a third wave of Covid-19 infections as the highly transmissible Omicron variant drives a surge in new cases, health authorities and experts said Saturday.The country reported 9,905 new infections and seven deaths on Friday in...

Annual bonuses are an internet phenomenon ahead of every Lunar New Year holiday in China, as companies vie to go viral with staff incentives that are the envy of all.The benefits of offering eye-catching bonuses are twofold – they raise the firms�...

Beijing usually offers its support to African nations on matters that affect the continent. But this month it went against the prevailing position on Mali, the troubled West African country where the military has seized power.Two weeks ago, China and...

The US customs agency has banned imports from Malaysian disposable glove maker YTY Group over suspected forced labour practices, the seventh such ban on a Malaysian company in two years.The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Friday it too...