A former kindergarten director jailed for filming a girl in his toilet had the conviction overturned after a Hong Kong judge ruled that the footage did not qualify as a “pornographic depiction” based on the relevant legislation.The High Court on ...

AstraZeneca said on Monday its antibody-based cocktail to prevent and treat Covid-19 retained neutralising activity against Omicron coronavirus variants, including the highly contagious BA. 2 sub-variant, in an independent lab study.This is the first...

A passenger plane with 132 people on board crashed in southern China on Monday, the authorities said.There was no immediate word of any casualties from the China Eastern Airlines flight. State media said the flight was carrying 123 passengers and nin...

Hong Kong Disneyland posted HK$2.4 billion (US$306.7 million) in losses for its last financial year – its seventh in a row without turning a profit – amid a series of pandemic-related closures and a near-complete absence of tourists.The results f...

China is considering offering a US$1.5 billion credit facility to Sri Lanka and a decision is expected soon, a top Chinese official said on Monday, as part of efforts to help the island nation amid its worst economic crisis in decades.Chinese ambassa...

A suspected prostitute has told police she offered sexual services for up to six clients a day in a five-star hotel in Hong Kong while she was infected with Covid-19, prompting the force to warn those seeking such services of the risk of catching the...

Ukraine on Monday rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where residents are besieged with little food, water and power in a humanitarian crisis that is increasing pressure on European leaders to toughen sanctions on Moscow.Uk...

China’s financial hub Shanghai reported a record surge in daily local Covid-19 infections on Monday amid the country’s determined efforts to contain growing outbreaks despite the “mild symptoms” reported.Shanghai reported 24 new domestically-...

The United States has transferred a significant number of Patriot antimissile interceptors to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks as the Biden administration looks to ease what has been a point of tension in the increasingly complicated US-Saudi relationshi...

Jacky Wang is an entrepreneur in China, but like many of his peers he is trying to recalibrate what that should involve.This year, he has bought two Mercedes-Benz cars and given 3 million yuan (US$470,000) to a social cause, after being urged to dona...

Trading was halted for the shares of China Evergrande Group and two of its units on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday, raising expectations of an impending announcement in the restructuring of the world’s most indebted property developer.Everg...

China’s population is likely to peak this year, a central bank adviser said, with several provinces already reporting declines in the population growth rate.Cai Fang, a member of the People’s Bank of China’s monetary policy committee, said it i...

China’s increased reliance on coal to combat an energy shortage was never going to bode well for its ambitions to cut planet-warming emissions. Now, thanks to new analysis of satellite data, the effects of that climate choice could already be evide...

The world’s poorest nations will pay China and its lenders almost US$14 billion this year in debt servicing costs, according to new research that urges Beijing to do more to support restructuring for those who need it.In total, 68 such countries wi...

US President Joe Biden has added a stop in Poland to his trip this week to Europe for urgent talks with Nato and European allies, as Russian forces concentrate their fire upon cities and trapped civilians in a nearly month-old invasion of Ukraine.On ...

Japan has broken with years of precedent in its tough response to the Ukraine invasion, and the conflict could reshape Tokyo’s defence strategy as it confronts China’s regional ambitions, analysts say.When Russia last pushed into Ukraine in 2014,...

Belgium mourned after a car ploughed into a crowd of early morning carnival-goers, killing six people and injuring dozens of others, but the authorities ruled out an act of terrorism.The tragedy took place around 5am on Sunday as the carnival of Stre...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.Key pointsFlight bans on nine countries to be lifted on April 1Hotel quarantine will be cut from 14 to seven d...

Thirty years after going public with her story of abduction, rape and forced prostitution by Japan’s wartime military, Lee Yong-soo fears she’s running out of time to get a closure to her ordeal.The 93-year-old is the face of a dwindling group of...

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China kept its benchmark lending rate unchanged despite concerns over a cooling economy, the central bank confirmed on Monday, but further easing is expected.The one-year loan prime rate (LPR) – on which most new and outstanding loans are based –...

Work in Hong Kong’s correctional facilities is closely linked to law and order in the city, especially with the potential for radicalisation among inmates as more people in violation of the national security law are thrown behind bars, the outgoing...

More than 100,000 Hongkongers are seeking new lives in Britain under a special scheme that promises citizenship for many residents of the former colony. The departures, which follow in the wake of a deep shift in the city’s political landscape, hav...

From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to surging inflation and rising social costs, the finance ministers of Hong Kong and Singapore have plenty on their minds.And if all that wasn’t enough, there is also the planned global minimum corporate tax of 1...

The decision to lock down Hong Kong’s prisons to contain Covid-19 outbreaks and force inmates to miss trial dates was difficult but necessary, the outgoing head of the Correctional Services Department (CSD) has said, insisting he did a “fair” j...

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Sen, urged Russia on Sunday to immediately end the war in Ukraine and withdraw its forces from the country, condemning the aggression as “a grave breach of the United Nations ...

China must exercise caution in navigating Arctic cooperation with Russia, observers say, as the invasion of Ukraine overshadows international collaboration in the polar region and puts a freeze on Arctic Council activities.Seven of the eight Arctic C...

China has fully militarised at least three of several islands it built in the disputed South China Sea, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems, laser and jamming equipment and fighter jets in an increasingly aggressive move that...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday said he hoped for a change of political regime for the people of arch-enemy Iran, in a message marking the Persian New Year, or Nowruz.“Nowruz literally means ‘new day’. And that’s my greatest ...

The Biden administration has formally determined that violence committed against the Rohingya minority by Myanmar’s military amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, US officials said, a move that advocates say should bolster efforts to hol...

Beijing’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa will have the tough task of balancing his country’s development interests and security challenges, as China plans its first peace conference in the conflict-ridden region.Visiting the Kenyan capital ...

The belief in stock markets that a “relief rally” will be justified once the Ukraine conflict eases is as shortsighted as the repeated call to “buy the dip”. The days of easy money to bolster markets are over, and so are those of booming trad...

China’s top envoy to the US denied that Beijing was sending military equipment to Russia to support its neighbour’s invasion of Ukraine, but declined to explicitly rule out such a move and defended the country’s unaltered economic relationship ...

Ukraine’s president on Sunday called on Israel to take a stronger stand against Russia, delivering an emotional appeal that compared Russia’s invasion of his country to the actions of Nazi Germany.In a speech to Israeli politicians, President Vol...

Yemen’s Houthi rebels unleashed one of their most intense barrages of drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia’s critical energy facilities on Sunday, sparking a fire at one site and temporarily cutting oil production at another.The salvo marked...

An estimated three quarters of a million ultra-Orthodox Jews packed the Israeli city of Bnei Brak for the funeral Sunday of influential rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, known to followers as the “Prince of Torah”.Authorities had voiced fears of disaster fr...

France has seized around €850 million (US$920 million) of Russian oligarchs’ assets on its soil, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday.“We have immobilised … €150 million in individual’s accounts, credit lines in France and in Fr...

Lagging behind Russia in developing hypersonic weapons, the US Navy is rushing to field its first, with installation on a warship starting as soon as late next year.The United States is in a race with Russia and China to develop these weapons, which ...

A mixed martial arts trainer and his assistant have been arrested by the Hong Kong police’s National Security Department for alleged seditious acts.Officers raided a venue where training classes were held at Chong Tak Building on Austin Road near T...

10 million people – more than a quarter of the population – have now fled their homes in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, the United Nations refugees chief said Sunday. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said nearly 3.4 million of the total had fled...

Pakistan’s parliament will convene on Friday to take up a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the lower house speaker’s office said on Sunday, in what is shaping up to be his toughest test since coming to power in 2018.An alli...

Black Spade Asia Acquisition, an asset buyer backed by the chairman of Macau’s casino operator Melco Resorts & Entertainment, has applied to raise capital in Hong Kong, joining 10 other so-called blank cheque companies on the city’s exchange.Blac...

President Joe Biden may have all pieces in place to “target” Beijing, Chinese experts on US affairs have warned, urging renewed understanding of a new crop of young, professional and “tough” White House “China hands”. Biden, who took off...

Hong Kong is bringing forward the timetable for the third phase of its “vaccine pass” that allows only residents protected against Covid-19 to enter most public places.Under the latest adjustments announced by the government on Sunday, all people...

Family, sportspeople and entertainers bid farewell to Australian cricketing legend Shane Warne at a private funeral held at his hometown in Melbourne on Sunday.Warne, one of the finest bowlers of all time whose talent and personality transcended cric...

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was in Cambodia for talks with his counterpart, Hun Sen, on Sunday to deepen relations with one of the Southeast Asia’s closest partners of both China and Japan.The two leaders were discussing cooperation cover...

China’s position on the Ukraine conflict is “objective and fair” and time will prove that it is “on the right side of history”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.“China will continue to make an independent judgment based o...

Three in four Japanese people worry that China may take military action against Taiwan or a set of disputed islands in the East China Sea, according to a survey by the Kyodo News.They are concerned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could induce Chi...

Asher*, 11, is attending online classes at home in Hong Kong, but on a typical morning, he is having trouble staying focused and has left his seat numerous times. He ends up playing video games during the Zoom session.Sometimes he even plays video ga...

North Korea appeared to have fired a short-range multiple rocket launcher early on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, amid heightened military tensions on the peninsula after a spate of larger missile launches by the nuclear-armed North.While the...