A hotel guest in central China died after the staff held on to life-saving medicine for five hours without delivering it, sparking heated online debate over the hotel’s responsibility. The 51-year-old man, surnamed Hu, was found dead in his room at...

Kazakhstan told Ukraine on Sunday to stop attacking the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles more than 1 per cent of global oil, after a major drone attack halted exports and seriously damaged loading infrastruct...

Hong Kong’s “top priority” is to resettle residents displaced by the Tai Po fire so they can get through the winter, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has said, as the city’s major monetary and banking authorities roll out measures to ease ...

A district in China’s northern city of Tianjin, the site of one of the country’s worst industrial disasters a decade ago, has launched a comprehensive fire hazard inspection campaign. The drive by the Binhai New Area district comes days after a c...

Some residents of the flood-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra have resorted to stealing food and water to survive, authorities said on Sunday, while Sri Lankan officials said deaths from floods and mudslides in that island nation have risen to 193. Th...

Hong Kong’s financial identity is entering a new chapter, shaped as much by strategic alignment as capital flows. By co-launching a US$1 billion investment fund with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the city is taking one of its most ...

Nepal is preparing to open one of its last untouched frontiers for foreigners by slashing the costly permit to enter Upper Mustang, a rugged plateau of ochre cliffs, hidden valleys and centuries-old Buddhist heritage. The government has announced pla...

During past flare-ups in diplomatic tensions between China and Japan, Chinese consumers spontaneously boycotted Japanese goods. But the latest row, sparked by controversial remarks on Taiwan by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, has met with a m...

China’s top woman shot put athlete has ignited an online debate about female stereotypes after saying that she plans to lose weight, become beautiful and get married after she retires. Gong Lijiao, 36, shared her life goals with the state media CCT...

Beijing’s state media has praised the swift rescue and relief efforts by the Hong Kong government after the city’s worst fire in decades, commending its leadership and pledging support in its first editorial commentary on the disaster. Published ...

MTV kick-started a new era of music and pop culture in 1981, when it went on air for the first time, emblematically playing “Video Killed the Radio Star” as its debut music video. More than four decades later, the channel, now owned by US media g...

Japan has often prided itself on its orderly, low-crime society, but cracks in that image are widening amid rising car thefts and home intrusions fuelled by export markets and public complacency. At a seminar in May on car theft held by the Aichi pre...

China’s factory activity contracted for an eighth consecutive month in November, according to official data, as external headwinds and weak domestic demand continued to drag on the world’s second-largest economy. The manufacturing purchasing mana...

A 14-year-old Chinese boy who turned his bedroom into a small history museum and spoke like an ancient scholar has attracted an army of followers online. The secondary school student from central China’s Henan province, Xie Zhaoyutong, loves ancien...

Four people were killed and 10 wounded in a shooting during a family gathering at a banquet hall in Stockton, sheriff’s officials said on Saturday evening. Heather Brent, a spokeswoman for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office, said the victims...

Thousands massed in the Philippine capital of Manila on Sunday demanding accountability over a multibillion-dollar infrastructure scandal that has seen scores of officials, lawmakers and construction firm owners accused of corruption. Rage over so-ca...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. What we know so far: 146 people, incl...

China pledged to “actively consider” helping Syria with post-war reconstruction when its new foreign minister visited Beijing earlier this month. But analysts said the two sides needed to first overcome the major hurdle of militant groups linked ...

Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, according to a Palestinian official. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 off...

A report due to be released next month by a South Korean foundation will attempt to settle some of the discrepancies over the sinking of a ship repatriating Korean labourers from Japan to Busan in 1945, although historians warn that it could dredge u...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced the country’s air force would be equipped with “new strategic military assets”, state media said on Sunday. Kim made the announcement at an event marking the 80th anniversary of the North Korean air for...

As Hong Kong mourns the victims of the deadly Tai Po blaze and questions emerge on accountability, experts have called for much tighter supervision of building maintenance and fire safety by authorities to hold relevant parties responsible so that fu...

A Russian drone attack has killed one person and wounded 11 on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, the regional governor said on Sunday. Mykola Kalashnyk, the Kyiv regional governor, reported “another enemy drone attack” and said rescuers wer...

Amid the diplomatic fallout between Tokyo and Beijing, Hunanese accountant Echo He feels relieved she has chosen Southeast Asia for her year-end trip with her husband and colleagues, instead of the popular choice, Japan. The latest spat between both ...

Recent weeks have seen a sharp decline in Sino-Japanese people-to-people exchanges. All flights on 12 routes from mainland Chinese cities to Japan had been cancelled as of November 24, reportedly due to low demand. According to the Civil Aviation Dat...

Chinese artificial intelligence start-ups Moonshot AI and MiniMax have emerged as China’s strongest contenders to rival US frontier labs in 2025 – even as DeepSeek has stolen the spotlight as the poster child for the country’s AI ambitions. Moo...

A decades-old staple in the slums of the Philippines, known as pagpag or “second-hand fried chicken”, has unexpectedly trended on mainland social media. Videos of Chinese influencers and bloggers filming themselves trying the food have gone viral...

The eight milk tea-coloured towers of Wang Fuk Court were special sentinels to many locals in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. Residents say that whenever they saw the blocks emerging into view on the northern-bound left side of Tolo Highway on their d...

As the pieces of Thailand’s political puzzle begin to fall into place ahead of an election set for early next year, the third incarnation of a reformist party that won the most votes last time around is seeking a repeat performance. But the People�...

Taiwan’s plan to acquire Israeli “takeover” technology as part of a counter-drone network has set off a debate over its use and the island’s security strategy as it tries to keep pace with rapidly evolving unmanned threats. At a briefing for ...

Despite years of policy interventions, air pollution in India is rapidly getting worse. By the middle of this month, cities including the capital New Delhi were seeing air quality readings at hazardous levels. A 2024 IQ Air report found India’s par...

After wowing World Expo visitors, a human washing machine is now on sale in Japan, a company spokeswoman said on Friday. Users lie down in the pod, close the lid and get cleaned like clothes in a washing machine – but without the spin – while mus...

British playwright Tom Stoppard, who won an Oscar for the screenplay for the 1998 film Shakespeare In Love, has died at the age of 88, United Agents said on Saturday. “We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved client and friend, Tom Stopp...

More than 600 officers from the Hong Kong Police Force’s Disaster Victim Identification Unit (DVIU) searched two fire-ravaged blocks of the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po without finding any more bodies on Saturday. The death toll fro...

Ukraine used domestically produced Sea Baby naval drones to strike two Russian oil tankers in the Black Sea, an official from Ukraine’s security services said on Saturday. The two oil tankers, Kairos and Virat – said to be part of Russia’s “s...

Hong Kong began a three-day official mourning period on Saturday for victims of the city’s deadliest blaze in decades as residents queued at the site of the tragedy and various halls to pay their respects, penning tributes and laying flowers. For t...

Hong Kong’s national security police have arrested a man on suspicion of trying to incite sedition in relation to the deadly blaze in Tai Po, the Post has learned. The move on Saturday came as the central government’s national security authoritie...

Several more pets have been rescued from the burned buildings of a residential complex in Tai Po, as animal charities continued to search for separated owners and expressed concerns that animals still trapped will have gone days without food or water...

A sense of sombre unity permeated the whole of Hong Kong on Saturday as residents from all walks of life mourned the victims of the city’s deadliest fire in seven decades by signing condolence books or flooding areas near the scene of the inferno w...

An Israeli attack killed two children in Gaza on Saturday, medics and relatives said, in violence that has persisted in the Palestinian enclave despite a fragile ceasefire. The children’s uncle said an Israeli drone fired on Fadi and Goma Abu Assi,...

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety”, but gave no further details as Washington ramps up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s government. �...

China’s second fifth-generation fighter jet, the J-35, could find buyers in the Middle East as demand grows for advanced stealth aircraft in the region – though its capabilities remain unknown, according to analysts. China, the United States and ...

Hong Kong’s home affairs minister has called on NGOs to better coordinate with the government on their support for residents displaced in the city’s deadliest fire in decades following reported confusion on the ground. Secretary for Home and Yout...

Spain’s Agriculture Ministry said it has halted all pork exports to China after two wild boar found dead near Barcelona tested positive for African swine flu, the first cases in three decades. The outbreak, the first since 1994, coincides with Span...

A Chinese man allegedly attempting to cross illegally into Thailand from Cambodia was injured on Saturday when he stepped on a landmine, the Thai army announced, reiterating its charges that Cambodian forces have been planting the anti-personnel weap...

Watching his young children’s faces light up with excitement, William Li felt relief, but the deep ache in his chest was overwhelming. His son and daughter were happy he had saved their most treasured possessions – a mobile phone and an iPad – ...

The People’s Liberation Army’s long-range rocket launchers can hit moving targets at sea during island seizure operations, according to mainland Chinese state media. In a report on Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV gave the first official confirma...

As Hong Kong reels from its deadliest fire in decades, a highly visible community of foreigners is also in mourning as it awaits for news of the fate of nearly 80 of its own who remain missing. They are the domestic helpers who remain unaccounted for...

A Hong Kong government subsidy of HK$60,000 (US$7,710) for victims of the Tai Po fire is only for residents living in Wang Fuk Court, the home affairs minister has clarified amid alleged cases of abuse online. Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Ali...

The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Southeast Asia climbed past 370 on Saturday as clean-up and search and rescue operations got under way in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swathes of the three c...