A fresh winter monsoon is expected to bring temperatures down to 8 degrees Celsius on Friday, as a cold front sweeping across Hong Kong extends to another week, according to the weather forecaster.The Hong Kong Observatory said a winter monsoon was e...

China’s Generation Z is setting its own rules in the workplace by encouraging a growing philosophy of being lazy.They call it “touching fish”, a term borrowed from a Chinese proverb that states “muddy waters make it easy to catch fish”, whi...

As we step into 2021, all of humanity is hoping that the worst impact on our economy, society and environment of the Covid-19 pandemic will soon pass. This was the general theme of the New Year messages I received from my friends. Several vaccines h...

Australia’s most-populous state of New South Wales reported eight new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, while neighbouring Victoria’s tally increased by three, as new measures to combat the disease kicked in.The NSW outbreak started around mid-December i...

A Chinese student who returned home last month after studying in the UK has been confirmed as having the new strain of the coronavirus first detected in Britain.The 18-year-old male, who returned home to Guangzhou, the capital of south China’s Guan...

Beijing’s grand plan to stimulate domestic growth should help lift Hong Kong out of recession by the end of the year, the financial chief has predicted.While businesses relying on tourism should expect prolonged difficulties, the turnaround after t...

China is doing all it can to prevent the sale and distribution of illegal Covid-19 vaccines, its embassy in Japan said on Friday, following a newspaper report that 18 Japanese had been injected with a Chinese product that had been smuggled into the c...

Entrepreneur Huihan Lie, 42, grew up in the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Groningen and found it “just strange” when he realised he was the only student of Chinese descent in his class who spoke fluent Dutch and had an Indonesian background �...

Hong Kong recorded 41 new coronavirus infections on Sunday, as a fresh outbreak among 11 construction workers at the Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin tunnel prompted authorities to issue mandatory testing orders at the site again.Up to 1,500 workers will have t...

A suicide bomber killed at least five people in Somalia in an attack targeting Turkish nationals in the country, according to officials in Mogadishu and Ankara.Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said two Turkish nationals were killed in the bombi...

Amateur historians in southern Japan have rediscovered the ruins of a base for midget submarines that were to be deployed in suicide attacks against the Allied fleet in the event of an invasion of the home islands during World War II. The extensive ...

Mention Indian cuisine and curry might come to mind, while sushi is one of the most well-known dishes from Japan. But what food is generally associated with Cambodia?If the country’s government and people have their way, it will most certainly be p...

Sixteen inmates who had been locked in a stand-off with authorities and camped on the roof of a New Zealand prison for almost a week have surrendered.Rawiri Waititi, a member of parliament and co-leader of the Maori Party, said he escorted the 16 men...

A founding member of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party has slammed the banning of a children’s book and the silencing of a pro-mainland cable television channel as a return to the island’s authoritarian past.The picture book, Waiting...

An alliance of players in Hong Kong’s port is eyeing refrigerated facilities as an edge over fierce competition from mainland China, with the group seeking to regain its lost crown as the world’s busiest shipping hub.An example of this efficiency...

The Gulf crisis that has pitted regional players against Qatar could be moving closer to resolution as the key countries prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.Riyadh led a coalition of countries in the Gulf and beyond in 2017 to cut ties with Do...

As a contiguous, big and growing power, China will always have significant influence in Southeast Asia. But for precisely the same reasons – size, contiguity and economic weight – Beijing will always arouse anxieties in the region. Big powers hav...

China has expanded the power of its Central Military Commission (CMC) – headed by President Xi Jinping – to mobilise military and civilian resources in defence of the national interest, both at home and abroad.Revisions to the National Defence La...

Pirates Cafe, in the waterfront city of Manado in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province, once brimmed with laughter and chatter from groups of Chinese tourists who typically ordered a range of seafood meals in one sitting.“Our cafe focuses on Chine...

Nearly a year since Hong Kong came under the spectre of the coronavirus, local mask manufacturers, who jumped on the supply bandwagon at the start of the pandemic amid a frenzied demand for the protective gear, are now facing a reversal in fortunes.F...

This year will be critical for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s hopes of remaining in power as he mulls the timing of a general election while steering Japan’s response to the coronavirus and pushing ahead with plans to hold the postponed 2020 Tok...

Two French soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in northeastern Mali on Saturday, just days after three others died in similar fashion, the French presidency announced.President Emmanuel Macron “learned with gr...

The government led by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan unofficially proposed that then Emperor Akihito evacuate to Kyoto or somewhere further in the west from Tokyo immediately after the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011,...

Iran’s foreign minister accused Israel of concocting a just cause for Washington to start a war against the Islamic Republic as Iranians marked the first anniversary of the US assassination of a top general.Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran had new in...

The China-Mauritius free-trade agreement – Beijing’s first ever with an African country – took effect on Friday, opening up a market of 1.4 billion Chinese consumers to the tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean.As a result of the deal, within ...

Festivals allow people to escape their everyday lives and experience the colour and cultures of the world without having to travel. In 2020, however, such opportunities were limited by the coronavirus pandemic.One festival that felt the brunt of the ...

The finishing touches were being put on a glitzy show at the Sydney Opera House Saturday, as the venue prepared to host an opera crowd for the first time since March.The Merry Widow will open on Tuesday to masked audiences up to 75 per cent capacity,...

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are joining US President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the election, pledging to reject the results when Congress meets next week to count the Electoral College votes and certify President-...

Britain on Saturday recorded more new coronavirus infections in a single day than ever before, registering over 57,700 cases within 24 hours, many of which are attributed to a possibly more contagious virus strain that is particularly rampant in Lon...

Dr Anthony Fauci, the United States’ leading infectious disease expert, said he expects the coronavirus vaccination to be mandatory in some institutions in the future.In an interview with Newsweek on Friday, Fauci said he is “sure” institutions...

Should Japan again issue a state of emergency as requested by Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures to combat increased coronavirus infections, it is bound to have a serious impact on this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.Tokyo, which logged a record 1,3...

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out on Monday whether he can be extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States to face espionage charges over the publication of secret American military documents.District Judge Vanessa Baraitser i...

Rescuers have uncovered a fifth body four days after a landslide buried homes near Norway’s capital, police said on Sunday, as the search goes on for five people still missing.The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Wednesday when houses were de...

L. Lin Wood, a conservative lawyer and US President Donald Trump’s ally, has rejected questions about his sanity after he tweeted that Vice-President Mike Pence should face a firing squad.The lawyer, who has litigated numerous failed attempts to ov...

Britain will allow people to be given shots of different Covid-19 vaccines on rare occasions, despite a lack of evidence about the extent of immunity offered by mixing doses.In a departure from other strategies globally, the government said people co...

China and Pakistan will deepen cooperation on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), in particular Gwadar port and a railway upgrade project, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Pakistani counterpart, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, on T...

China protested on Saturday over the US move to delist China’s three largest state-run telecoms groups from the New York Stock Exchange and said it will take the “necessary measures” to safeguard its companies’ interests.The NYSE said on Thur...

With a ball made from rags and surging adrenaline, the young Jorge Bergoglio and his friends pulled off “miracles” playing football in the street, Pope Francis recalled on Saturday.Now 84, the Argentine pope remembered “the joy, the happiness o...

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has offered an olive branch to the incoming Biden administration, saying a “new window of hope” is opening.In a wide-ranging interview with state news agency Xinhua published on Saturday, he urged the Biden admi...

Hong Kong’s two biggest teachers’ unions have urged the government to decide soon whether school campuses will reopen this month, while three quarters of educators want coming tests postponed if pupils are kept at home, a survey has found.But an ...

Early Friday morning, police were called to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home after vandals defaced the garage door and a severed pig’s head, covered in fake blood, was left on the driveway.The white garage door of the Pacific He...

A leading medical adviser to the Hong Kong government is urging the administration to maintain a ban on flights from Britain until at least the end of the month when it reviews the policy next week.His advice comes despite calls for the measure to be...

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation could receive about HK$370 million (US$47.72 million) from the government in compensation for losses suffered through the nearly year-long suspension of its high-speed cross-border service due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a...

One of the most trusted medical figures in China has urged the public not to panic after the country reported its first case of the new highly contagious coronavirus strain that was first discovered in Britain.Shanghai-based infectious disease expert...

A federal judge on Friday rejected a lawsuit from a Republican congressman that sought to allow Vice-President Mike Pence to reject Electoral College votes for Joe Biden when Congress meets on January 6 to certify his victory over President Donald Tr...

The widely expected resumption of diplomatic engagement between Iran and the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden in Washington has prompted an anticipatory foreign policy shuffle by powers across the Middle East.The return of the ...

A Hong Kong boarding school catering to teenagers with drug and behavioural problems has put out a plea for donations to sustain its ailing model, but years of shrinking enrolment and stubbornly high overhead have raised questions as to its long-term...

Wearing a face mask has become a way of life during the coronavirus pandemic, but it can also cause us to inhale harmful plastic fibres, according to a new study by Chinese scientists.The researchers tested a wide range of mask products and found tha...

India’s market regulator ordered billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his conglomerate Reliance Industries to pay a combined penalty of 400 million rupees (US$5.5 million) for allegedly violating share-trading rules about 13 years ago.In its order dated J...

Iran plans to enrich uranium up to 20 per cent at its underground Fordo nuclear facility, international inspectors said on Saturday, pushing its programme a technical step away from weapons-grade levels as it increases pressure on the West over its t...