The Philippines and the United States launched the largest-ever joint military drills in the archipelago nation on Monday, signalling deepening defence ties as fresh tensions surface in the disputed South China Sea.The war games are the last under ou...

The US needs a stronger economic agenda for the Indo-Pacific region, as opposed to its current focus on security issues, according to Indonesia’s foreign minister.Retno Marsudi, speaking on the sidelines of the Doha Forum in Qatar, said the 10 memb...

China’s financial hub Shanghai started a snap two-part coronavirus lockdown on Monday, restricting a zone on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River that includes the Pudong New Area, home to about 5.7 million people.For the next four days, these res...

Hong Kong’s actual Covid-19 mortality rate could be lower than the official record suggested, the city’s leader said on Monday, as she conceded that about a quarter of the population might have already contracted the virus.Speaking at her daily e...

Germany is considering purchasing a missile defence system to shield against a potential attack from Russia.“This is certainly one of the issues we are discussing, and for good reason,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said told public broadcaster ARD on S...

New Zealand is gravely concerned about the possible militarisation of the Pacific following a decision by the Solomon Islands government to form a security partnership with China, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.Confirmation on Friday by...

Spain plans to treat a coronavirus infection almost like a normal illness similar to flu.Those who become infected with coronavirus and develop only mild symptoms of the disease or none at all can continue to lead a normal life. Neither a test nor ho...

Best actor nominee Will Smith smacked presenter Chris Rock in the face with an open hand and shouted a vulgarity at the comedian for making a joke about his wife’s appearance at the Oscars ceremony on Sunday.Rock made a joke about the hairstyle of ...

Despite Beijing’s attempts to separate the Ukraine issue from its ties with Europe, Russia’s invasion is set to hang heavily over the long-delayed annual China-EU summit on Friday, according to sources and diplomatic observers.“This time we hav...

Hollywood A-listers held a moment of silence at Sunday’s Oscars gala to show support “for the people of Ukraine currently facing invasion, conflict and prejudice within their own borders”.Just before the Oscar plea for aid, Ukrainian-born actre...

When 32-year-old Dhruv Agarwal called his family on November 9 last year, he looked exultant and excited.He had finally reached the enchanting Parvati Valley in northern India after an overnight bus ride from New Delhi and wanted his family to see wh...

CODA, the heartwarming indie drama about a deaf family defying the odds, won the top prize on Oscars night for best picture, the first time a streaming service took home the film industry’s biggest prize.CODA was released by Apple TV+, which beat N...

Celebrities walked the Oscars red carpet on Sunday ready to celebrate the year in movies at a ceremony free of last year’s pandemic restrictions and promising a few plot twists as well as a moment of support for Ukraine.Jessica Chastain, who won be...

Recent days may have dragged on like years for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as blistering criticisms piled up against her and her administration over the city’s shocking rise in Covid-19 infections.When the daily figure surpassed 50,...

North Korea will continue to develop “formidable striking capabilities” that cannot be bartered or sold for anything, leader Kim Jong-un said, according to state media on Monday, as he visited workers involved with the country’s biggest missile...

Anti-tobacco advocates have for years pushed for a “tobacco endgame”, where young people will be banned from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetimes. New Zealand got the ball rolling when it announced its intention to gradually raise the minimu...

HSBC, the biggest lender in Hong Kong, recorded an increase in deposits and loans in the city during the first quarter, despite having up to 70 per cent of its local branches closed at the height of the latest Covid-19 outbreak.The bank’s first-qua...

Hollywood stars walked the Oscars red carpet on Sunday ready to celebrate the year in film at a ceremony free of last year’s pandemic restrictions and promising a few plot twists.Jamie Lee Curtis, Lily James and the cast of Japanese best picture no...

Guinea’s ruling junta has reached a US$15 billion deal with Rio Tinto and an Asian-Guinean consortium to exploit the vast Simandou iron ore deposit in the southeast, public television announced.The three-way deal, signed late on Friday, has a 35-ye...

A top adviser to Hong Kong’s leader has been appointed as the next chairman of the city’s museum of visual culture, while four more members of the business sector will sit on the board in a bid to boost sponsorship, the Post has learned.Bernard C...

Hong Kong’s Tracker Fund (TraHK) is poised to appoint a manager to replace State Street Global Advisors, a move aimed at mitigating the risk of letting the city’s largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) become a bone of contention in rising US-China t...

Sports and music stars took to the stage on Sunday for a Ukraine charity telethon hosted by Polish state channel TVP that was addressed by world leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.“We will restore Ukraine after the war is won,...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has added to disruptions caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, has created increasing uncertainty for most industries, with shipbuilding one of them.South Korean and Chinese shipbuilders rank among the indu...

Israeli and Arab partners convened for a rare summit in Israel on Sunday attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who sought to reassure the US allies over Washington’s diplomacy with Iran.The issue is likely to dominate the two-day gather...

El Salvador’s Congress granted President Nayib Bukele request to declare a state of emergency early on Sunday amid a wave of gang-related killings over the weekend.Fourteen people were killed on Friday and 62 people died on Saturday, a scale of vio...

Ukraine is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia but such a pact would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in remarks aired on Sunday....

Iraq is building a concrete wall along part of its border with Syria to stop Islamic State group jihadists from infiltrating, an Iraqi military source said on Sunday.In the “first stage” of construction, a wall around “a dozen kilometres (seven...

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany on Sunday boycotted a solidarity concert hosted by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, protesting that the soloists featured on the programme were all Russians.The concert, performed by the renowned Berlin Phil...

Thousands of people marched though Madrid on Sunday to protest against abortion, as Spain’s leftist government prepares a law to guarantee access to the procedure at public hospitals.Carrying signs that read “Abortion is not right” and chanting...

The Taliban has banned news bulletins by the BBC, and Voice of America from running in Afghan media, in a further restriction of freedoms in the country.BBC Pashtu reported on Sunday that the broadcaster’s news bulletins in the Pashto, Persian and ...

Without Russian help, climate scientists worry how they’ll keep up their important work of documenting warming in the Arctic.Europe’s space agency is wrestling with how its planned Mars rover might survive freezing nights on the Red Planet withou...

In a major U-turn late on Sunday night, authorities in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai ordered a vast swathe of the city into a lockdown from Monday to try to contain the spread of a coronavirus outbreak.The city government said that from 5am t...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday tried to soothe the fears of Israel and its Gulf Arab allies ahead of the possible renewal of global powers’ international nuclear deal with Iran.Blinken made the comments soon before joining his count...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned Nepal of “external interference” threatening the core interests of both countries, a month after Kathmandu ratified a US aid grant branded by Beijing as “coercive diplomacy”.In talks with his Nepali...

Hong Kong police have arrested a woman in charge of a restaurant in Sheung Wan and fined 16 diners for flouting social-distancing rules after they attended a birthday party there.Officers from Central district raided the site on Queen’s Road Centra...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to shake the very foundation of international order and could potentially lead the world to “the greatest crisis” since World War II, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday.Japan would not rule out an...

Hong Kong customs officials have seized more than HK$150 million (US$19.1 million) worth of the potentially addictive substance kratom since the city banned it last August.They seized 58 tonnes of mitragynine – the major compound in kratom – in 2...

A group of pro-Beijing politicians aims to grill Hong Kong’s leader on her plans to bring the city out of the coronavirus crisis, scheduling a videoconference meeting with her on Monday.Dozens of people, including Hong Kong deputies to the National...

Russia wants to split Ukraine into two, as happened with North and South Korea, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said on Sunday, vowing “total” guerilla warfare to prevent a carve up of the country.President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the We...

A group of technology companies in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, has formed a new industry association focused on metaverse-related developments, as the frenzy continues over what some consider the next stage of the internet week...

The Russia-Ukraine war has intensified efforts by the Middle East’s competing powers to arrive at a detente with each other and common rival Iran as the United States’ interest in the region wanes.The blunt refusal of all of Washington’s allies...

Private enterprises in China’s industrial sector reported a 1.7 per cent drop in profits in the first two months of the year, according to official figures that highlight the challenges they face from the latest Covid-19 outbreak.Over the same peri...

Hong Kong’s finance chief has predicted that the economy contracted in the first quarter of the year, putting an end to previous growth, but has expressed confidence in the city’s ability to recover.In a blog post on Sunday titled “The first qu...

Britain’s National Grid said on Sunday it would sell a 60 per cent stake in its British gas transmission and metering business to Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management and Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management Corporation as it shift...

US President Joe Biden’s comment that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” continued to generate outrage in Moscow on Sunday.Prominent Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in parliament�...

The risk of military conflict in the South China Sea is rising after the United States significantly intensified operations over the past year, a Chinese think tank has warned.In 2021, US amphibious landing and carrier strike groups conducted 12 exer...

Hong Kong’s leader has sparked another controversy in announcing a phased relaxation of the city’s tough anti-pandemic restrictions.Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s decision includes allowing the resumption of direct flights from ni...

Maternal filicide is back in the headlines in Indonesia following another case in which a mother allegedly murdered one of her children and severely injured two others.Kanti Utami, 35, is suspected of murdering her 7-year-old child in the village of ...

Increased China purchases of Russian natural gas will not make up for the loss of the European market, but their real importance to Moscow will be as a channel for necessary goods in the face of strict Western sanctions, according to a leading energy...

When Covid-19 ripped through India in 2020-21, several million people are thought to have died. Desperate efforts to stem the pandemic hurt the battle against another huge killer: tuberculosis.India is the home to a quarter of the world’s TB infect...