One of Hong Kong’s largest department stores has temporarily closed this weekend after two employees tested preliminarily positive for the coronavirus, as the Bank of East Asia said it would suspend operations at 15 branches amid the ongoing fifth ...

China reported 45 new cases of Covid-19 within the Winter Olympics bubble on the Games’ opening day, a doubling in cases in 24 hours as arrivals accelerated.In all, 25 of the cases were athletes and team officials and the rest were found among othe...

A large fire broke out at the Russian embassy in the Philippine capital, prompting the evacuation of employees and their families but causing no injuries, Russian and Filipino authorities said Saturday.Investigators were trying to determine the cause...

Hong Kong police have recorded an increase of more than fivefold in the number of cases involving unlawful possession of fireworks during the Lunar New Year period, compared with the same stretch last year.A spokesman for the force said that from Jan...

Hong Kong authorities have been reviewing a call by lawmakers and unionists for the government to issue a short-term subsidy for unemployed residents amid the current fifth wave of coronavirus infections, the city’s finance chief has said.The revel...

China and Russia have agreed to coordinate their satellite navigation systems as the two countries further solidify their partnership to rival the US-owned GPS.This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed “unprecedented” close ties with ...

A former staffer at Australia’s embassy in Bangkok has been charged after multiple spy cameras were found in women’s bathrooms at the mission, a Canberra official said on Saturday.Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed th...

Taiwan has condemned as “contemptible” the timing of Beijing and Moscow’s “no limits” partnership at the start of the Winter Olympics, saying Beijing was bringing shame to the spirit of the Games.This came after China and Russia, at a meeti...

There’s a new twist in the tug of war between China and India over Sri Lanka, one of a string of countries where the geopolitical rivalry between the Asian giants is playing out.China has staged an unprecedented charm offensive to court ethnic Tami...

By definition, Accession Day – the anniversary of when Queen Elizabeth became Britain’s monarch – is as much a day of mourning as a celebration, because it’s also the 70th anniversary of the death of her beloved father, King George VI.Thus, F...

Hong Kong health authorities confirmed a single-day record of 351 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, as a senior government official warned of an “exponential” increase in cases.Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee revealed the...

There was no prosperous start to the Year of the Tiger for Hong Kong businesses as strict social-distancing rules and a surge in Covid-19 infections dampened the festive mood, keeping people at home.With 387 cases recorded over the first three days o...

He Qi, an English teacher from Guangzhou city, divorced last month. He and his ex-wife split their properties quickly and amicably, but could not escape a big quarrel over their two dearest possessions – the pet dogs.“They are my children and I w...

Machine gun fire echoed through the abandoned buildings of Pripyat in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, as Ukrainian National Guard troops on Friday staged urban combat exercises.The live-fire training - carried out in one of the most radioactive places ...

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, lagging in the polls before an election later this year, is dealing with the fallout from a leaked text message from his deputy Barnaby Joyce branding the premier “a hypocrite and a liar”.Joyce has apo...

Hong Kong health experts have warned of an exponential increase in Covid-19 cases after the Lunar New Year holiday, sparking concern whether the city’s overburdened public health care system, as well as other testing and quarantine facilities, can ...

Singapore, South Korea and New Zealand have reported record daily Covid-19 community cases.Singapore’s Covid-19 infections surged after the Lunar New Year holiday with the number of new local cases tripling on Friday, according to Ministry of Healt...

US deaths from Covid-19 have surpassed 900,000, accelerated to the highest levels in 13 months by the surge in infections caused by the Omicron variant, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.US President Joe Biden said it was a “tr...

In the Asean bloc’s internal debate on whether engagement or a hardline stance with Myanmar’s junta will force coup-maker Min Aung Hlaing to abide by a peace plan for the strife-torn country, the cabal of countries favouring the latter strategy a...

The Kwai Chung Estate lockdown has been in the media spotlight, not only because of the large number of Covid-19 cases related to a cluster at the estate, but also because of residents’ complaints about lockdown and testing conditions: poor waste d...

Hong Kong has entered uncharted territory in its battle against Covid-19 by allowing some infected patients to be treated outside hospitals and close contacts of cases to self-isolate at home.With the rising number of cases pushing the city’s long-...

The foreign ministers of the United States, Japan, Australia and India will meet next week in Australia to advance the “Quad” group’s cooperation in areas including the economy, security and the coronavirus pandemic, amid China’s growing asse...

China’s continuation with its zero-tolerance approach against the coronavirus will deepen consumption woes and supply chain risks, as well as set back the nation’s efforts to deleverage and rebalance its economy, according to a report.Even though...

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday restored sanctions waivers to Iran to allow international nuclear cooperation projects, as indirect American-Iranian talks on reviving the 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran enter the final st...

Nigeria is looking to Europe for funding to complete infrastructure projects such as railways, with a senior official in the West African nation saying Chinese loans are drying up.Analysts say Nigeria’s situation reflects a broader Chinese move awa...

The key to solving the issue of North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes is in the United States’ hands, China’s UN envoy said on Friday, urging Washington to show “more sincerity and flexibility” if it wants a breakthrough.�...

Madagascar has put six of its regions on high alert as tropical Cyclone Batsirai is forecast to hit the Indian Ocean island’s east coast on Saturday with intense winds of 195km (121 miles) per hour, according to the Department of Meteorology.Reside...

Lawyer Michael Avenatti, who rose to fame for taking on then-US President Donald Trump before a string of criminal charges ended his legal career, was convicted on Friday of defrauding a former client, porn star Stormy Daniels.Avenatti, who faces up ...

The heaviest flooding to hit Ecuador in two decades claimed 27 lives this week and left 53 people injured, municipal officials said Friday.The floods inundated homes, carried off cars, and swept away volleyball players and spectators on a sports fiel...

China’s National Bureau of Statistics recently published census data that showed the country’s population is ageing and its growth slowing sooner than anticipated. Last year’s population growth was the slowest since the Great Leap Forward in 19...

The University of Toronto has apologised after lucky lai see packets containing “hell bank notes” were distributed at a student residence, in an attempt to celebrate the Lunar New Year that went horribly awry and offended some students.Distributi...

Five people died and another was injured on Friday when an avalanche struck Austria’s Tyrol province, rescue services said.The victims were buried under snow in an area near the Swiss border, a rescue official told Agence France-Presse.“Unfortuna...

France’s parliament has approved a bill that aims to gradually reduce the use of nitrite in cured meats and has ordered a review of the potential health risks by the end of June.Nitrite salts are widely used in cured meats such as ham, bacon and sa...

Ukrainian troops on Friday trained at the Yavoriv military base in western Ukraine, using anti-tank missiles, launchers and other military hardware delivered by the United States as part of a US$200 million security package.Soldiers, some in white ca...

Rescuers inched closer Friday to reaching a five-year-old boy trapped for three days in a well in Morocco, in an operation hampered by concerns about ground stability that has captivated the North African country.The boy, identified as Rayan, fell in...

It’s official: from Saturday, Austrians over the age of 18 must be vaccinated against Covid-19 or face the possibility of a heavy fine, an unprecedented measure in the European Union.The new measure, adopted on January 20 by Parliament, was signed ...

The US House of Representatives passed mammoth new China legislation on Friday that targets nearly every aspect of Washington’s tense relationship with Beijing.“The America Competes Act will ensure that America is pre-eminent in manufacturing, in...

Iceland, one of the only countries that still hunts whales commercially, said on Friday it plans to end the practice from 2024 as demand for whale meat dwindles.For the past three years, Iceland’s whalers have barely taken their boats out into the ...

The Wall Street Journal was hit with a “persistent” cyberattack by a foreign government that stole data from the company, the newspaper’s parent NewsCorp said on Friday, and a cybersecurity firm hired to investigate the attack said the hackers ...

“History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme”, the great writer Mark Twain is credited as saying. In many ways, the same can be said about this year’s Asean chair, the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.A decade ago, the strongman plung...

Two pet cats owned by a close contact of a Covid-19 patient have tested positive for the coronavirus in Hong Kong.The close contact’s five domestic shorthair cats were sent to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) for quaran...

Aaron Bell, a British lawmaker in the ruling Conservatives, said on Friday he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Boris Johnson, saying the prime minister’s handling of Downing Street lockdown parties had made his position untenable.Johnson ...

Oxford researchers announced Thursday the discovery of a highly virulent strain of HIV that has been lurking in the Netherlands for decades, but because of the effectiveness of modern treatments, is “no cause for alarm.”Their analysis, published ...

Contact information of lawyers and memos reminding detainees of their legal rights made by activist groups are evidence of the “organised nature” of an anti-government protest in 2019, a judge has found in convicting four suspects of unlawful ass...

A former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker has been jailed for three weeks on a contempt charge for protesting against a rival assuming control in a chaotic Legislative Council meeting in 2020, in the first such conviction since indirect elections were i...

Last week the seven-day average for daily deaths in the United States, most of them the result of the Omicron variant, surpassed the peak number at the height of the Delta outbreak.Data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention showed th...

China and Russia strengthened the interdependency of their two economies on Friday as visiting President Vladimir Putin unveiled a series of agreements, including a new gas deal, during his meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing at a time when Moscow is ...

Indonesian authorities have declared two villages on Java island red zones and banned livestock movement from the area after the deaths of several farm animals from anthrax, an official said on Friday.Seven cattle and a goat have so far tested positi...

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who served for more than two decades in the top job, continues to undergo treatment at the National Heart Institute but has been allowed to go to his home, his office said on Friday.Mahathir, 96, has ...

A think-tank at China’s prestigious Peking University has pulled a report that concluded China would likely suffer more in a tech decoupling from the US.The 7,600-character report was published on the official WeChat account of the school’s Insti...