The two-week nomination period for Hong Kong’s leadership election began on Sunday with candidates yet to come forward and incumbent Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor refusing to indicate whether she would seek a second term. She said it w...

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan called Sunday for the president to dissolve parliament and hold a fresh election, minutes after the national assembly deputy speaker declined to hear a no-confidence motion into his rule. In an address on state TV, ...

Authorities will step up the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) across Hong Kong, senior officials have revealed, as health authorities confirmed just over 3,700 new Covid-19 infections. The remarks on Sunday came a day after Tong Xiaolin, the...

Russia said on Sunday that peace talks with Ukraine had not progressed enough for a leaders’ meeting and that Moscow’s position on the status of Crimea and Donbas remained unchanged. “The draft agreement is not ready for submission to a meeting...

Over the past week a rap titled Scrambling for Vegetables became an online hit with Shanghai residents for whom the race to buy fresh food has become a part of everyday life under lockdown. Many locals are now having to get up at 6am in the hope of b...

Shanghai has stepped up mass Covid-19 testing as the local government struggles to contain the current outbreak. All citizens were told to carry out rapid antigen self tests on Sunday before a citywide nucleic acid test the following day – the larg...

By bringing more colour to its female characters, Netflix’s Bridgerton has secured a head start on Bollywood. While India’s Hindi-language film industry dallies about casting a dark-skinned actress in a lead romantic role – Will audiences accep...

Singapore will not need to tighten pandemic measures even if the number of Covid-19 cases starts to rise again, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong told The Straits Times. The easing of international travel restrictions will allow more workers to come int...

Taiwan will speed up the development of its military drones to strengthen its defences against Beijing after seeing how Ukraine used them to resist Russia’s invasion. Noting the effectiveness of Ukraine’s drone fleet, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing...

When Josephine*, a 54-year-old domestic worker from the Philippines, began to have a sore throat, she feared it was Covid-19. It was at the time when Hong Kong was going through the most serious wave of the pandemic and hospitals were running out of ...

More than 6.3 million Hongkongers will receive the first half of this year’s consumption vouchers worth HK$5,000 (US$638) each from April 7, the city’s financial chief has revealed. Writing on his official blog, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-p...

Pakistan is seeking to expand its relations with both the United States and China, the chief of the country’s powerful army said, two days after Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the Biden administration of planning to oust his government by backin...

Some Russian troops were killed and many more were injured after being given poisoned food and alcohol by civilians in the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday. The soldiers were from the 3rd Russian motor rifle division, according to...

China’s tech sector is losing its shine as a career choice for the country’s best educated and most entrepreneurial amid widespread headcount cuts, subdued growth and intense regulatory scrutiny, according to jobseekers and workers in the sector....

Two fatal crashes involving Thai policemen and their family members driving high speed in luxury vehicles in Bangkok have enraged the Thai public and fired up debate on the nature of accountability and power in the kingdom. On March 12, a 40-year-old...

Sleeping rough on the streets in Sham Shui Po, homeless Hongkonger Tu Van-tam, 58, wanted to get vaccinated against Covid-19 for more than a year, but did not know how or where to get a jab. The former construction worker has been homeless for about ...

Two officials of North Korea’s ruling party, including the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, criticised South Korea’s Defence Minister for comments about his country’s missile capabilities. The North Korean statements, issued through KCNA, claimed ...

The World Health Organization said on Saturday it has suspended supply through United Nations agencies of the Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin, produced by India’s Bharat Biotech, to allow the manufacturer to upgrade facilities and address deficiencies fou...

Torrential rains triggered flash floods and landslides across Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state, killing at least 14 people including eight children, and leaving five missing, authorities said Saturday. Two days of heavy rain have battered a broad swat...

The security pact between China and the Solomon Islands will become both a key foothold and a new obstacle in Beijing’s push to expand its presence in the South Pacific, according to analysts. A draft version of the security deal, which was initiat...

An Algerian man imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for nearly 20 years has been released and sent back to his homeland. The Department of Defence announced Saturday that Sufiyan Barhoumi was repatriated with assurances from the Algeria...

Russia’s assault on Ukraine and its veiled threats of using nuclear arms have policymakers, past and present, thinking the unthinkable: How should the rest of world respond to a Russian battlefield explosion of a nuclear bomb? The default US policy...

More people are foregoing committed relationships or refusing to be romantically attached. Instead of spending time on multiple dating apps and risking a bad date, people are capitalising on their value as fun, attractive and successful individuals. ...

Armed troops in Sri Lanka blocked a Sunday opposition protest march staged in defiance of an emergency curfew to protest the island nation’s worsening economic crisis, after authorities imposed a social media blackout to contain public dissent. The...

There is considerable reason for China to pursue a policy of discreet mediation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Such a policy is in China’s own interests and would benefit the global economy, but these factors are not the most critical consideratio...

Tesla Inc on Saturday reported record electric vehicle deliveries for the first quarter, but its production fell from the previous quarter as supply chain disruptions and a China plant suspension weighed. “This was an *exceptionally* difficult quar...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian soldiers of deliberately mining areas in northern Ukraine as they withdraw or are pushed out by Ukrainian forces. Ukraine says its troops have retaken control of more than 30 towns and villag...

Hong Kong should push ahead with the wider use of traditional Chinese medicine in treating Covid-19 patients recovering at home, the leader of a team of experts visiting the city has said. Tong Xiaolin, head of a group of seven Chinese medicine speci...

Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba met his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and inaugurated the Himalayan nation’s only railway link with its southern neighbour on Saturday in a summit meant to deepen relations. Deuba’s first trip to Ind...

Russian police detained 176 people on Saturday at protests against Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, an NGO said. OVD-Info, which monitors arrests during protests, said police had detained at least 176 people during demonstrations in 14 citie...

China is looking to mitigate the effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on its ties with the European Union with continued trade but hopes are fading that it can be through a revival of a landmark investment deal. In a sign of a lack of progress, no ...

China’s securities regulator has proposed changes to key rules on Chinese companies listed abroad in a move that could ease a long-standing auditing dispute with the United States. In revised draft rules released on Saturday, the China Securities R...

Researchers in Shanghai say they have developed a device to create extremely low temperatures that would make cutting-edge technology such as quantum computers more widely available. The core components of most quantum machines – from computers to ...

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk, began at sunrise on Saturday in much of the Middle East, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent energy and food prices soaring. The conflict cast a pall over the holid...

China will expand the trial of its sovereign digital currency to a number of Chinese cities including Chongqing, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, as the central bank works on incentives for banks, technology firms and local authorities to take part i...

A Red Cross convoy were to try again to evacuate civilians from the besieged port of Mariupol on Saturday as Russian forces looked to be regrouping for new attacks in southeast Ukraine. Encircled since the early days of Russia’s five-week-old invas...

John Wang and his wife were in Kyiv in late February when the Russian military launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine. Just a few weeks earlier he had started a job in the Ukrainian capital after graduating with a master’s degree from a local un...

The families of some Hong Kong Covid-19 patients who died want the government to ensure that medical help goes to those who need it most, so that more lives can be saved in the city’s ongoing fifth wave of infections. They said their family members...

Russia’s space director said on Saturday that the restoration of normal ties between partners at the International Space Station (ISS) and other joint space projects would be possible only once Western sanctions against Moscow are lifted. Dmitry Ro...

Pope Francis said Saturday he is studying a possible visit to Kyiv and blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching a “savage” war. Speaking after his arrival in Malta, he delivered his most pointed and personalised denunciation yet of ...

Shanghai public health authorities have told all hospitals and clinics across the city to reopen emergency wards after reports that people were being denied access to treatment during the citywide coronavirus lockdown. The order followed after severa...

As anger in Sri Lanka mounts over massive food and fuel shortages, the government is hoping to negotiate a financial lifeline from the International Monetary Fund to end the country’s spiralling economic crisis. Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa wil...

Hong Kong has exempted chief executive hopefuls and candidates from strict social-distancing rules ahead of the coming poll following the city leader’s confirmation that it will proceed on May 8. Hopefuls wishing to get nominations from a 1,500-str...

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has called on his supporters to take to the streets on Sunday ahead of a parliamentary no-confidence vote that could see him thrown out of office. No Pakistan premier has ever completed a full term, and Khan is faci...

Australia formally signed a trade deal with India on Saturday as the two nations signalled an intention to forge closer trade ties. The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement was signed in a virtual ceremony by Trade Minister Dan Te...

The warring sides in Yemen’s seven-year conflict have for the first time in years agreed a nationwide truce, which would also allow fuel imports into Houthi-held areas and some flights operating from Sanaa airport, the UN envoy said on Friday. The ...

One of Hong Kong’s most iconic migratory birds could be removed from a list of endangered animals in two years, following decades-long conservation efforts, an environmentalist group has said. The global population of the black-faced spoonbill has ...

The objections of family members have stymied efforts in a Covid-19 vaccination outreach service for Hong Kong’s elderly, with up to 20 per cent of senior residents eventually cancelling bookings at the last minute. The trend, revealed by a major N...

As the sun dips below the Indian Ocean waves, Ukrainian tourist Viktoria Makarenko and her daughter light incense every evening at a temple in a Sri Lankan beach resort to pray for a return home. Russia’s February invasion of the 35-year-old’s ho...

All 132 people on board China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 were killed when the Boeing 737-800 plunged from a cruising altitude into a hillside in southern China on March 21, sending shock waves across the country. The accident spelled an end to mo...