The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc, with over 650 million people and set to become the fourth largest global economy by 2030, should stop selling itself short as a junior partner in ties with China.That was among the ke...

More than 40 per cent of people infected with the coronavirus still suffer from “long Covid” symptoms within a year of diagnosis, with women more susceptible to the condition, a study by Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has shown.A total ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend a G20 summit in Indonesia later this year, Moscow’s ambassador to Jakarta said on Wednesday, dismissing suggestions by some G20 members that the country could be barred from the group.The United St...

Hong Kong’s leader has pledged to review a mechanism for banning flight routes if airlines bring in too many passengers infected with Covid-19, as authorities reported more than 12,200 new cases.At a press briefing on Wednesday, Chief Executive Car...

Taiwan is considering extending compulsory military service beyond the current four months, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Wednesday, as the war in Ukraine renewed a discussion about how best to respond to Beijing’s military threats.Taiwan...

Family members of the 132 people aboard China Eastern Airlines flight 5735 that crashed on Monday were offered hotel rooms but given no news about whether anyone survived China’s largest aviation disaster in two decades or if bodies have been found...

The Taliban ordered girls’ secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut on Wednesday just hours after they reopened, an official confirmed, sparking confusion and heartbreak over the policy reversal by the hardline Islamist group.“Yes, it’s true,�...

China has sent inspection teams to 10 provinces to implement swift containment measures as the countrywide Covid-19 surge driven by the Omicron variant shows no signs of slowing.Culture and tourism deputy minister Du Jiang headed the team dispatched ...

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor appeared via video link before the Legislative Council on Wednesday to face questions from pro-establishment lawmakers over the government’s handling of the city’s worst outbreak of the coronavirus ...

Almost 100,000 people are trapped among the ruins of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, facing starvation, thirst and relentless Russian bombardment, President Volodymyr Zelensky said as the UN sharpened demands for Moscow to end its “absurd” and �...

A citywide manhunt is under way for the suspected accomplice of a Hong Kong man who was allegedly caught with HK$2 million worth of heroin in his car after ramming a police van and colliding with five other vehicles in an attempt to evade arrest.Poli...

A US judge on Tuesday ruled that China’s ZTE, a top telecommunications equipment maker, should be allowed to end its five-year probation from a 2017 guilty plea.The ruling came on the final day of the company’s probation for illegally shipping US...

The US and Philippines will hold their biggest military drills in three decades as tensions grow with China, injecting new life into a defence alliance that had languished in recent years.Some 5,100 American soldiers and 3,800 Philippine military mem...

An ultra-luxurious yacht owned by a Russian oligarch and former KGB officer may soon be on its way again after weeks of being refused fuel by Norwegians.The converted icebreaker is docked in the port of Narvik, a small town in Norway’s far north, w...

A magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Taiwan early on Wednesday, rattling buildings and rousing people from their sleep but with no immediate reports of injuries or major damage.Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes, because the island ...

China’s wealthy continue to show trust in Western education in the post-pandemic era, but more expect their children to return on completion of overseas study, according to a new report on international education.While wealthy Chinese families valu...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that she is positive again for Covid-19 and would not accompany President Joe Biden to Europe this week for urgent meetings with world counterparts on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Biden tested negative on ...

Hong Kong schools must achieve a 90 per cent two-dose vaccination rate among their student bodies if they hope to resume full-day, in-person classes next month, the city’s education minister has announced.Confirming a previous Post report, Secretar...

Climate change is now “the greatest threat to the future and security” of Australia, senior defence figures in the country warned on Wednesday.The group – which includes the former chief of the Australian Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie –...

The crash of China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 on Monday with 132 people on board has prompted condolences from around the world.Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his sympathy via a Weibo post from the embassy in Beijing that read: “Pleas...

A man wielding a knife stabbed several people and ran over another in southern Israel on Tuesday, killing four, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country in recent years.The assailant, who Israeli media have identified as a Bedouin man who previ...

New Zealand’s government said on Wednesday it would lift vaccine mandates for a number of sectors including teaching and police from April 4 as the current Covid-19 outbreak nears its peak.New Zealand’s response to the pandemic won plaudits overs...

Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Wednesday said contrasting views between China and the United States on Russia’s Ukraine war was threatening to “inadvertently complicate” already fraught ties between the superpowers.“The...

A Chinese man became a “shared father” by helping the families of children with serious diseases with daily chores during the coronavirus pandemic.The man, only identified with his surname Li, has a child diagnosed with leukaemia. In the past few...

An FBI agent told a jury how he traced US$35 million siphoned from 1MDB, diverted to a Goldman Sachs banker and used to buy a US$20,000 gold-plated hourglass and US$300,000 in diamond jewellery.Testifying on Tuesday at the foreign-bribery trial of ex...

The UK’s iconic fish and chip shops could be facing their worst battering in decades, in part because of Western sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.The National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF), the official body that represents t...

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...

Russia would use nuclear weapons in the context of the Ukraine conflict only if it were facing an “existential threat”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN International on Tuesday.“We have a concept of domestic security, and it’s public...

Flight data provided by an air traffic monitoring service has depicted a battle for control of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, suggesting the plane pulled out of a 22,000 foot nosedive and briefly started climbing before a second dive sent it c...

Ant Group, the fintech business affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding, has named its first regional head for the Southeast Asian market, sending a signal that the group is putting its focus back on growth as a restructuring process to meet tougher Ch...

The United States and Britain ended a four-year dispute over US steel and aluminium tariffs, pledging to work together to counter China in a deal that also removes retaliatory tariffs from US motorcycles, whiskey and other products.In a joint stateme...

The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has joined Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in boosting local fintech innovations by introducing a sandbox programme that allows stock exchanges, as well as securities and futures companies to experiment with new ...

The Russian-Ukraine conflict is a test for Chinese diplomacy, but playing a constructive role will offer a “great opportunity” to raise its profile on the world stage in future, a diplomatic observer has said.Li Wei, an international relations pr...

Federal prosecutors alleged on Tuesday that a US researcher illegally kept his work with a Chinese university secret, while the defence countered that he was merely “moonlighting”.The conflicting portrayals came during opening statements in the t...

The United States on Tuesday named former senior diplomat Joseph Yun to lead languishing talks with three tiny but strategically important Pacific Island countries, a signal that countering China remains a US priority despite Russia’s war in Ukrain...

Slowing growth in the all-important China market is likely to hurt revenue among US firms operating in the country, but Southeast Asian manufacturers could gain from disruptions in the world’s No 2 economy, according to analysts.China set its 2022 ...

Ukraine is appealing to a Chinese maker of civilian drones to block what the Ukrainian government says is their use by the Russian army to target missile attacks.Vice-Prime Minister Mykhailo Federov’s appeal to DJI Technology Co, publicised on Twit...

Canada’s ruling Liberal Party and opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) have reached a surprise agreement that aims to keep the minority government in power until 2025, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.Governments with a minority of se...

The US embassy accused Russia of “kidnapping” thousands of Ukrainian children as local officials alleged Russian troops are forcing deportations of civilians as they bombard eastern cities.“According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Russian f...

An Italian study published on Tuesday suggests that efficient ventilation systems can reduce the transmission of Covid-19 in schools by more than 80 per cent.An experiment overseen by the Hume foundation think-tank compared coronavirus contagion in 1...

Hong Kong lawmakers have voiced their concerns about limiting public feedback under proposed amendments to land-use regulations, even as the city’s development minister argued that the changes would conform to procedural justice.Most lawmakers agre...

South China Morning Post economy desk reporter Ji Siqi recently flew home to mainland China from Hong Kong having not seen her family in her hometown of Shenyang in the northeastern province of Liaoning for over a year due to coronavirus restrictions...

Chinese sportswear maker Xtep has jumped on the non-fungible token (NFT) bandwagon with the release of a series of digital trainers, as consumer brands in and outside the country rush to capitalise on the popularity of the digital assets.At a press c...

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei makes his directorial operatic debut in Rome on Tuesday with a new reading of Giacomo Puccini’s final, unfinished opera, “Turandot”.And with a storyline seeping with bloodshed and despotism, a new geopolitical...

Hongkongers looking to take advantage of eased travel curbs to return to the city have found themselves scrambling to secure hotel rooms for quarantine, with some premises fully booked until August, the Post has found.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng...

An outspoken pro-establishment lawmaker is considering moving a no-confidence motion against Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor for what he called her flip-flopping policy on universal testing to tame the coronavirus epidemic.If Junius Ho Kw...

At least 117 children have been killed so far in Russia’s war on Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told Italian lawmakers.“But 117 will not be the final number,” he warned in a video link to both chambers of parliament in Rome...

Investigators combing the wreckage of a plane crash in southern China said on Tuesday that they still had not been able to locate the Boeing 737-800’s flight recorders or identify what caused the plane to go down.China Eastern Airlines flight MU573...

Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding are tightening rules that apply to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on their platforms, as Chinese tech giants take preemptive measures to avoid potential scrutiny of the tokens, which are referred to as digital c...

Nearly half of children polled by a non-governmental organisation have reported facing corporal punishment from their parents, revealing that psychologically abusive disciplining methods are common among Hong Kong families.Against Child Abuse, which ...