Any country giving “credibility” to claims by Moscow of US-funded bioweapon labs in Ukraine was effectively aligning itself with Russia’s attack against Ukraine, the United States said on Friday, hours after a top Chinese diplomat said the unpr...

Hong Kong confirmed 27,647 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, including 11,858 people who reported their rapid antigen test (RAT) results using the government’s new online portal, continuing a downward trend in daily infections.Public hospitals rep...

The Kashmir valley has been mired in conflict for more than three decades, the prize in a tug of war between India and Pakistan, and the scene of a long-running armed insurgency. Bouts of deadly violence and street protests against Indian rule are co...

China’s first-tier cities, from Shanghai in the east to Shenzhen in the south, are racing to tamp down the country’s latest Covid-19 wave, with more than 1,500 new cases reported nationwide on Saturday.Shanghai is battling a surge in local asympt...

When Catholic priest Father Nap Baltazar raised his hands to bless the people attending mass, the sleeves on his white vestment slid back to reveal a pink bracelet inscribed with the words “Let Leni Lead”.Baltazar, 47, belongs to a group of like-...

The 60-year-old City Hall in Hong Kong is set to become its first post-war monument in an unprecedented move by the government that takes into account residents’ shared history and the structure being a beacon for social equality.Experts said it wa...

Public health experts at the World Health Organization have begun discussing how and when to call an end to the global Covid-19 crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.The WHO isn’t currently considering such a declaration, according t...

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the nation’s political leaders want to move to a new phase of living with Covid-19 as though it were the flu, but would consult health experts.A day after meeting with the national cabinet of state a...

Air raid sirens blared across most cities in Ukraine on Saturday morning urging people to seek shelter, local media reported, after President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war had reached a “strategic turning point”.Russian forces appeared to be re...

Singapore’s gay rights campaigners know full well that their years-long campaign to repeal the country’s colonial-era law that criminalises consensual sex between men is a marathon, not a sprint.That reality came into focus in recent weeks, after...

Stronger legal protections for China’s security and rights in its territorial waters and airspace – as well as in outer space – were the subject of a military discussion panel as part of the “two sessions” meetings in Beijing this week.Pres...

Left-leaning former student leader Gabriel Boric has vowed to improve the lives of all Chileans and attack deep inequality that has sparked massive protests after being inaugurated as the youngest president in the country’s history.At 36, Boric was...

Drivers supplying goods into Hong Kong will be allowed special access under a new measure to speed up the distribution of essentials and anti-epidemic goods from across the border, the city’s leader has said.The transport channel would operate in a...

After 10 years in prison for “insulting Islam”, Saudi blogger and human rights activist Raif Badawi, who has become a symbol of freedom of expression around the world, was released on Friday.“Raif called me. He is free,” said his wife Ensaf H...

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) pledges to deepen efforts to monitor, review and clean up online content in the world’s biggest internet market this year, following an aggressive campaign in 2021 to remove information that the state de...

Last summer, Ralph Lauren launched its inaugural collection of digital apparels on Zepeto, where customers can select from 50 items to dress their avatars in the brand’s signature prep-school look.There were colourblock hoodies, Polo T-shirts, tedd...

For the first time in decades, the ritual of “villain hitting”, known as da siu yan in Cantonese, that takes place under the Canal Road flyover between Causeway Bay and Wan Chai was briefly suspended in a bid to deter large gatherings.If you’re...

Premier Li Keqiang announced on Friday that the Chinese government would introduce a digital version of the national identification card this year, enabling better government services for an increasingly cyber-savvy population.Speaking at the annual ...

“51, 63, 26, 84 ...” Luo Caiyun murmurs a series of numbers to her paralysed husband Hu Minglang.After deciphering Hu’s different mumbling sounds and observing his limited head movements - a nod as in agreement and a shake of his head to expres...

Political wrangling surrounding a rent deferral scheme proposed by Hong Kong’s financial secretary to help struggling commercial tenants is escalating as a cross-sector business alliance plans to pile pressure on the government to quickly roll out ...

In the first six weeks of 2022, more than 40,000 Russians poured into Thailand – tourists craving a sun-kissed shore far away from the harsh winter of home.They were beckoned back to the beaches of Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya by a welcoming natio...

Satellite images showing the dispersal of a now-infamous Russian military column north of Kyiv are proving both the extraordinary ability of publicly available technologies to track the war in Ukraine as it happens – and their limitations.The high ...

US President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday announced sanctions against a network of Russians suspected of helping North Korea build up its illicit weapons programmes.The move comes one day after US officials warned that Pyongyang would face ...

Singapore plans to simplify Covid-19 restrictions that have built up in the city state since the start of the pandemic and intends to further ease entry rules for vaccinated travellers, with the worst of the current Omicron wave seen to be over.The i...

The fifth wave of the Covid-19 crisis in Hong Kong has claimed hundreds of lives, making the city’s seven-day rolling average of Covid-19 deaths per capita the highest in the world. This has caused panic, fuelled by sparse information about the dec...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may give China an “opportunity” to gain influence in the Middle East through its Belt and Road Initiative, with the United States distracted in Europe, analysts said.However, Beijing is likely to be prudent with any...

Donald Trump cannot sue E. Jean Carroll, a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, on the grounds that her defamation lawsuit against him violated a New York state law intended to protect free speech, a federal judge ruled on Friday.US Distric...

Western countries accused Russia of spreading “wild” conspiracy theories at the United Nations Friday after Moscow’s envoy told diplomats that America and Ukraine had researched using bats to conduct biological warfare.Moscow called a meeting o...

The United States, fellow members of the Group of 7 economic nations and the European Union announced on Friday that they planned to deny preferential trading status to Moscow in the wake of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the lates...

Negotiations aimed at restoring Iran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers went on what its European hosts described as “a pause” on Friday, after Russia demanded relief from sanctions targeting Moscow over its war on Ukraine.Diplomats offe...

Russia restricted access on Friday to Instagram and launched a criminal case against its owner Meta, as Moscow fired back at the tech giant for allowing posts calling for violence against Russian forces.Moscow’s internationally condemned invasion o...

In his last televised press conference as premier, Li Keqiang presented himself as a social engineer carefully crafting policies to improve people’s livelihoods in the midst of crises such as Covid-19.The 66 year-old also portrayed himself as an em...

India said on Friday it had accidentally fired a missile into Pakistan this week because of a “technical malfunction” during routine maintenance, giving its version of events after Pakistan summoned India’s envoy to protest.Military experts hav...

The situation in Ukraine is grave and China is deeply concerned, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday, as confrontations between Russia and the West persisted with no sign of easing.Doubling down on an invasion that the West says has been losing...

Funeral homes are fully booked until mid-April amid Hong Kong’s rising Covid-19 death toll, with the suspension of simple farewell ceremonies at hospitals and the long processing time of death documents worsening the bottleneck, according to operat...

More import controls on the pet trade could reduce animal-to-human transmission of Covid-19, researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) said on Friday, after they found hamsters could contract and spread the coronavirus.The investigation was ...

Russia widened its military offensive in Ukraine on Friday, striking near airports in the west of the country for the first time, as observers and satellite photos indicated that its troops, long stalled in a convoy outside the capital Kyiv, were man...

China making rapid antigen tests available to the public for the first time, suggesting a subtle change in tack in its “zero-Covid” response as cases surge.The National Health Commission said on Friday evening that the tests could be used by anyb...

Shanghai’s fresh Covid-19 outbreak was caused by management oversight at a quarantine hotel, according to local authorities, exposing the challenges for China’s zero-Covid policy as it battles the coronavirus for a third year.“The virus came fr...

The election of Hong Kong’s government will need to be done “strictly in accordance” with the relevant rules of the Basic Law, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday, giving a clear hint of the central government’s wish for the chief execu...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called on the US to lift export bans on China, despite widening differences between the two countries.During his annual press conference in Beijing on Friday, Li said there were broad areas and great potential for coope...

Premier Li Keqiang has pledged that China will offer up a variety of “oxygen-supplying” measures to help counter risks to economic growth in 2022.At the last major press conference of his 10-year tenure, Li called the coronavirus pandemic the “...

A Hong Kong judge spared a teenager hard labour at a detention facility for carrying a laser pointer to a 2019 protest, after finding that he had reflected on his behaviour during the protracted legal proceedings despite having maintained his innocen...

Asia passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus-linked deaths on Friday, a Reuters tally showed, as a spike in Omicron variant infections spreads across the region after starting in nations such as Japan and South Korea.The death toll in As...

Hundreds of employees at Hong Kong’s biggest free-to-air television broadcaster are expected to join a trial run for a closed-loop system next week to ensure the continued production of programmes amid the Covid-19 outbreak and a possible lockdown ...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has defended China’s zero-Covid response while pledging a more “scientific and targeted” approach to ensure a stable global supply chain.Asked at what is expected to be his last press conference as premier about wheth...

Younger Malaysian voters angered by the 1MDB corruption scandal played a key role in ending the six-decade rule of the United Malays National Organisation back in 2018. Ahead of another national election, there’s a lot more of them – and they app...

Police in southwestern China are hunting the father of a one-year-old boy who abandoned him after the child accidentally fell into a fire and suffered serious burns, the Southern Metropolis News reported on Thursday.The father, a farmer named Liu Piz...

China has logged its highest daily Covid-19 case count since its first national outbreak in 2020, with more than 1,000 new locally acquired coronavirus cases reported, as local authorities scramble to tackle outbreaks across the country.The spike was...

Hong Kong’s health minister said on Friday that authorities had stopped distributing electronic tracking wristbands to Covid-19 patients under home isolation because of the sheer number of infections, with the city confirming more than 29,000 new c...